THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


PIney  Woods 

and 
Its  Story 


Laurence  C.  Jones,  Principal,  and  Capt.  Asa  Turner,  Chairman 
Board  of  Trustees. 


PINEY  WOODS 


AND 

ITS  STORY 


By 
LAURENCE  C.  JONES 

Principal  of  the  Piney  Woods  Country  Life  School. 

With  an  Introduction  by 
S.  S.  McCLURE 


NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

Fleming   H.    Revell   Company 

LONDON       AND       EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New    York:  158    Fifth    Avenue 

Chicago:    17  North  Wabash  Ave 

London:    21  Paternoster    Square 

Edinburgh:  75     Princes     Street 


Education 
Library 

LC 

A2 

872  J7 


To  my  Wife  and  Mother  who,  from  the  first  day  they 
knew  me,  have  given  their  best  for  me,  this  book  is 
affectionately  dedicated. 


T 


INTRODUCTION 

HIS  is  the  story,  told  by  himself,  of  a 
Negro  of  education,  intelligence  and  sen- 
sitiveness,  who  turned  his  back  upon  every- 
#  thing  that  usually  makes  life  worth  living  for  peo- 
£|  pie  of  his  kind  and  went,  without  money  or  influ- 

•*•„ 

*  ence,  or  even  an  invitation,  among  the  poorest  and 
most  ignorant  of  his  race,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
helping  them  in  every  way  within  his  power. 

8 

~io      He  has  told  it  persuasively  and  sincerely.    It  is 

o  a  valuable  human  document ;  a  paragraph  in  a  vital 

chapter  of  American  history.     I  was  glad  to  pub- 

.    lish  in  McClure's  Magazine  the  first  record  of  his 

|    inspiring  work.    It  is  difficult  to  'believe  that  there 

•fi 

3    is  any  good  citizen  in  this  country,  white  or  black, 

i    of  whatever  shade  of  belief  in  regard  to  the  larger 
z 
3    aspects  of  the  "  Negro  question,"  who  will  not  be 

<    glad  to  join  with  me  in  wishing  God-speed  to  its 
author  and  the  remarkable  school  he  has  built. 

S.  S.  MoCLTJBE. 

NEW  YOKK. 


4.49706 


FOREWORD 

IT  was  during  the  lingering  dusk  of  a  never-to- 
be-forgotten  evening,  and  the  twilight  im- 
parted a  perfect  serenity.  In  the  west  the 
gun  had  left  in  its  trail  a  shimmer  of  red  and  gold, 
and  only  the  evening  hymns  of  birds  obtruded  on 
the  silence.  Finally  Mrs.  Harris,  the  dear  wife  of 
our  constant  friend,  Dr.  D.  J.  Harris,  resumed  the 
conversation  and  spoke  of  the  increasing  faith 
which  her  husband  had  in  the  work  at  Piney 
Woods  and  of  the  ultimate  benefit  that  he  felt 
would  accrue  from  it  for  those  for  whom  it  was 
maintained;  and  she  also  remarked  the  interest 
with  which  he  had  read  and  re-read  my  little  story, 
"Tip  Through  Difficulties."  Then,  departing  for 
the  moment  from  her  reminiscent  mood,  she  said, 
speaking  for  herself :  "  It  is  a  story,  Mr.  Jones, 
everyone  should  know.  Piney  Woods  and  its  his- 
tory has  taken  itself  out  of  the  realm  of  mere 
friendly  individual  claim  and  praise,  and  now  be- 
longs to  the  public.  You  not  only  owe  it  to  the 
public,  but  to  yourself  as  well,  to  gather  and  com- 
pile the  sketches  which  from  time  to  time  you  havfc 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

written,  and,  blending  them  with  *  Up  Through 
Difficulties,'  to  issue  the  whole  in  form  for  the 
many  rather  than  the  few." 

Last  summer  also,  during  my  speaking  tour  on 
the  Redpath  Chautauqua  Circuit,  after  each  lec- 
ture I  was  asked  by  many  people  if  I  had  pub- 
lished anything  relative  to  my  work  in  book  form. 
And  so,  there  you  are,  dear  reader,  and  I  trust, 
good  friend.  But  I  beg  you  not  to  think  of  this 
little  book  as  the  story  of  my  life.  It  is  much  more 
than  that;  it  is  the  story  of  that  which  to  me  is 
more  than  my  life.  It  is  the  story  of  the  lighting 
of  a  torch — a  torch  indeed,  but  one  blazing  like  the 
sun,  one  which  shall  furnish  a  new  and  compelling 
inspiration  to  the  children  of  many  generations, 
each  striving  to  perform  his  or  her  part  in  making 
brighter  the  home,  the  race,  the  community,  the 
nation,  and  the  world. 

And  should  not  I,  "  Piney  Woods  "  Jones,  ac- 
knowledge my  appreciation  of  the  time  and  thought 
which  my  teacher,  Miss  Mary  Grove  Chawner,  of 
college  days  and  since,  has  given  to  the  work? 
Should  I  not  also  remember  with  deep  thankfulness 
Mr.  Harvey  Ingham,  Mr.  J".  E.  Reizenstein,  Mr. 
Frank  Hartman,  Mr.  A.  A.  Moore,  Mr.  F.  A. 
Moscrip,  Mr.  Fred.  Lazell,  and  Mr.  J.  L.  Waite, 
who  with  their  trenchant  pens  have  stood  loyally 


FOREWORD  9 

behind  the  school  from  the  beginning  ?  I  must  also 
thank  Miss  Alice  French,  Rev.  Benjamin  Brawley, 
Mrs.  Mary  Ovington  White,  and  Col.  Robert  T. 
Kerlin  for  their  kindness  in  reading  the  manuscript. 
For  the  effort  of  these  friends,  and  for  the  kindness 
of  all  the  others  who  are  mentioned  in  these  pages, 
who  can  tell  my  gratitude?  From  the  bottom  of 
my  heart  I  thank  them ;  I  thank  them  all  to-day. 

LAUBENCE  C.  JONES. 
BBAXTON,  Miss. 


Contents 

I.  MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS         .       .       .       .15 

II.    SCHOOL-DAYS 33 

III.  PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUB  SKY     .       .    52 

IV.  LOG  CABIN  DAYS 77 

V.  "  MESSAGES  OP  HOPE  "       ....     89 

VI.    WIDENING  INFLUENCES       .       .       .       .117 

VII.    TEN  YEARS  AFTER 130 

AFTER  WORD  .  152 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


OPPOSITE    PAOB 

Laurence  C.  Jones,  Principal,  and  Capt.  Asa 

Turner,  Chairman  Board  of  Trustees        Title 
The  Old  Cabin          .          .          .          .          .20 

Made  into  a  School  Building        .          .          .20 
Our  Primitive  Country       .          .          .          .28 

Learning  to  be  Useful         .,         ,.          .          .     38 
Winter  and  the  Woodpile    .          ..         .          ,     46 

First  Corn  of  the  Season     .          .          .          .46 

Coming  to  Enter  Piney  Woods    .          .          .54 
First  Graduating  Class       .          .          .          .62 

Faculty  in  Early  Days        .          .          .          .62 

Bringing  the  North  and  the  South  Together  .     68 
Mothers'  Club  .          .          .,         .          .          .74 
Clearing  the  Land     .         ...         .          .  T4 

Mrs.  Laurence  0.  Jones      .          .          .          .86 

Southern  White  Visitors     .          .          .          .92 

Girls  in  Boarding  Department      .          .          .96 
Southern  White  Friends      ....    102 

Harris  Hall  Dormitory  that  Burned      .          .110 
Boys  Living  in  Tents  Afterwards  .          .110 

Young  America          .          .          .          .          .   120 

Class  Making  Baskets  of  Pine  Straw  .  .  120 
Visitors  from  Five  Northern  States  .  .  124 
Dulany  Hall:  Hon.  James  B.  Weaver,  of 

Iowa,  standing  in  front         .          .          .   132 
Goodwill  Hall :   The  Present  School  Building, 

1922 136 

Commencement,  1922         ....   146 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS 
}/ 

WOODED  hills,  a  shimmering  river,  and 
rugged  cedar  bluffs  give  St.  Joseph  a 
picturesque  setting;  mills  and  locomo- 
tives and  steamboats  keep  it  busy  with  travel  and 
trade;    while    magnificent   churches    and    schools, 
hotels  and  parks,  give  it  civic  pride  and  make  it 
what  it  is — a  pretty  city,  the  busiest  and  richest  of 
its  size  in  the  state  of  Missouri. 

Here  I  was  born  and  raised ;  and  as  I  think  now 
of  the  many  notable  features  of  the  town,  if  I  were 
asked  to  name  the  single  one  that  in  point  of  beauty 
or  interest  surpasses  all  others,  my  reply  would  be 
hesitant  and  doubtful,  but  in  the  days  when  I  was 
a  little  boy  I  should  have  answered  promptly  and 
even  with  a  challenge :  "  The  Pacific  Hotel  of 
course." 

The  "  Pacific "  was  not  only  one  of  the  most 
popular  hotels  in  the  West;  from  front  to  rear, 
from  cellar  floor  to  the  top  of  the  tallest  chimney, 
it  was  everything  that  makes  a  hotel  equal  to  the 

demands  of  wealth  and  culture.     Every  good  and 

15 


16  PINEY  WOODS 

perfect  pleasure  seemed  crowded  within  its  walls — 
music  and  bloom  and  color,  warmth  when  the  days 
were  cold,  coolness  when  the  days  were  hot,  luxury 
and  life  and  beauty  in  every  form.  But  what 
above  all  else  made  the  Pacific  such  a  joy  to  my 
childish  heart  was  the  fact  that  it  belonged  to  my 
father.  Truth !  Was  he  not  the  porter  there  ?  It 
was  his  hotel  and  I,  a  frequent  visitor,  made  much 
of  by  those  about,  was  one  small  lad  who  surveyed 
vast  possessions. 

Everybody  had  a  word  for  "  John."  It  was 
"  Well,  John,  I'm  back  again  " — a  handshake,  a 
slap  on  the  shoulder,  and  my  father's  big  laugh 
booming  out.  "  No,  no,  John,  just  keep  the 
change."  "  Well,  by  all  that's  good  and  bad,  John, 
are  you  here  yet?  Can't  they  get  rid  of  you  at 
all?  Ha!  ha!  ha!"  "Well,  good-bye,  John,  be 
good  to  yourself."  "  Hello,  John."  "  Howdy  do, 
John."  "Oh,  John."  "Oh,  Jo— ohn!"  There 
were  all  sorts  of  voices,  inflections,  and  accents, 
with  laughs,  growls,  jokes,  requests,  and  orders. 

All  tones  fell  lightly  upon  my  ear.  Then,  al- 
most without  fail,  I  would  hear  one  of  the  voices, 
a  heavy,  rumbling,  bass  one,  say,  "Your  boy, 
John  ? "  as  a  white  hand  descended  upon  my  head. 
"  Want  to  get  rid  of  him,  give  him  away,  hire  him 
out  or  something?  Better  let  me  take  him  along; 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  17 

I  need  a  boy  just  like  that."  There  was  always 
somebody  claiming  to  want  me  and  trying  to  make 
a  bargain  with  my  Dad  for  possession;  and  it  took 
me  a  long  time  to  learn  that  they  were  only  joking. 
One  day  when  a  big  man  was  gravely  making  ar- 
rangements for  me  to  go  North  and  be  a  lumber- 
jack, I  answered  the  usual  question  as  to  how  that 
would  suit  me  by  rudely  piping,  "Rats! "  and  the 
deal  came  to  a  sudden  stop.  Then,  while  my 
would-be  employer  went  on  his  way,  his  broad 
shoulders  shaking  with  amusement,  I  myself  sat 
aghast,  my  little  world  in  ruins.  From  my  father, 
however,  came  the  word  of  speedy  retribution: 
"Son,  you  drivin'  mos'  too  big  a  team  to-day. 
Show-off  is  a  bad  boss.  Can't  have  him  'roun'  this 
hotel  a-tall — nope,  not  a-tall.  Run  along  home, 
son,  an'  tell  your  mother  'bout  it." 

My  father,  plain,  strict,  and  practical,  was  a  val- 
orous, verbal  supporter  of  the  rod.  I  can  hear  him 
now,  placidly  advising  my  mother,  "  Put  the  bud 
to  him;  jus'  tan  his  jacket."  Yet  he  himself  was 
never  known  to  put  his  preaching  into  practice. 
My  mother,  however,  theoretically  opposed  to  such 
doctrine,  could  somehow  get  her  hands  on  a  long, 
keen  switch,  peel  the  leaves  off  it,  and  apply  it  as 
it  was  most  needed,  more  quickly  than  anybody  else 
I  knew. 


18  PINEY  WOODS 

One  great  and  special  treat  of  those  days  was  to 
accompany  my  father  when  he  went  to  "  make " 
the  trains  and  watch  him  "git  the  business,"  as 
he  termed  it.  His,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  a  capti- 
vating way  of  raising  his  hand  to  his  cap,  with  a 
deferential  yet  crisp  half-query,  half-statement, 
"  Hotel  ?  Pacific  Hotel,"  as  the  passengers  came 
down  the  steps.  Next  his  erect  figure  moved  away, 
a  grip  in  each  of  his  hands,  while  I,  trying  to  walk 
just  like  him,  strode  alongside,  looking  forward  to 
the  time  when  I,  too,  should  be  a  man — and  a 
porter. 

Yes,  I  would  be  a  porter,  and  I  would  have  a 
stubby  pipe  and  lots  of  fat  cigars,  which  the  drum- 
mers and  other  big  men  would  give  me ;  and  on  my 
Sunday  afternoons  off  I  would  sit  by  the  fire,  or,  in 
warm  weather,  on  the  little  front  porch  at  home, 
and  smoke,  and  smoke,  and  smoke.  My  eyes  would 
look  gladder  and  kinder  than  ever  while  I  blew 
rings  and  watched  them  curl  and  fade  away,  and 
the  way  I'd  puff  would  be  a  wonder.  Yet  long  be- 
fore, I  had  almost  proved  myself  a  prodigy  by 
appearing  on  a  program  and  declaiming: 

"Fll  never  use  tobacco,  no! 

It  is  a  filthy  weed; 
ni  never  put   it  in  my  mouth, 
Said  little  Robert  Reed." 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  19 

One  day,  as  I  was  sunning  outside  the  building, 
at  peace,  so  far  as  I  knew,  with  all  the  world,  a 
storm-cloud,  in  the  person  of  Egg-eye,  one  of  the 
neighborhood's  little  terrors,  rose  on  the  horizon 
and  blew  briskly  down  the  walk  in  my  direction. 
So  far  all  right.  His  face  was  very  innocent  and 
his  eyes  fixed  straight  ahead,  and  this  was  all  right 
also.  Just  as  he  came  abreast  of  me,  however,  his 
feet  gave  a  funny  little  shuffle;  his  shoulder,  the 
one  nearest  me,  hunched  up ;  and  his  elbow  flew  out 
like  a  rigid  wing  and  disturbed  his  progress  by 
jabbing  against  me.  Indignant,  surprised,  he 
wheeled  about  and  halted.  "  Oh,  it's  Mister 
Jones,"  he  crowed;  "come  pretty  near  knocking 
me  down.  Better  run  over  me  next  time  and  be 
done  with  it."  He  jerked  his  hat  more  to  one  side, 
rolled  his  eyes  around  to  make  sure  there  were  no 
onlookers,  drew  nearer  and  belligerently  lowered 
his  voice :  "  Think  you  own  dis  here  hotel,  don't 
you?  Think  yo'  pa  owns  it.  Well,  you  git  that 
out  o'  yo'  fool  head  or  I'll  knock  it  out.  And 
you" — his  scornful  eye  scanned  my  white  blouse 
And  tight  little  velvet  trousers — "  stylish,  ain't  you  ? 
Got  on  yo'  Sunday  clothes !  Huh !  don't  you  cheep. 
Don't  you  call  me  liar." 

Egg-eye  knew  I  had  not  tried  to  cheep.  Around 
the  hotel,  however,  I  was  bound  to  be  on  my  beat 


20  PINEY  WOODS 

behavior.  To  be  involved  in  a  noisy  quarrel  or 
fight  would  have  been  disastrous  to  me;  moreover, 
Egg-eye  was  much  larger  than  I.  Down  in  my 
heart  raged  the  desire  to  call  him  several  choice 
names  that  I  knew  of  and  had  not  yet  dared  to 
utter — names  that  would  have  annihilated  him  at 
once.  My  father  was  somewhere  about,  however, 
and  might  hear  me;  so  I  backed  away  gradually, 
gradually,  hoping  to  get  near  enough  to  the  door 
before  the  enemy  suspected  to  get  inside  with  some 
degree  of  dignity.  It  seemed  that  I  should  never 
reach  that  door.  Meanwhile  Egg-eye  had  thrust 
forward  his  jaw  and  gone  through  with  all  the 
preliminaries,  and  the  next  thing  would  have 
been  the  actual  attack.  But  the  blows  were  never 
dealt;  the  enemy  saw  someone  approaching  and 
vanished. 

When  my  father  heard  my  version  of  the  affair 
he  seemed  to  enjoy  it  immensely.  After  a  while, 
however,  he  said  reflectively,  "  So  that's  the  big 
question,  is  it?  Do  I  own  this  hotel?  Well,  son, 
I  own  my  part  of  it  an'  you  can  always  count  on 
your  ol'  Dad  ownin'  his  part  of  anything  good 
that's  round  about  him."  Having  thus  restored  my 
happiness  he  added  to  it  by  giving  me  a  penny  and 
a  nickel — the  penny,  according  to  established  cus- 
tom, to  be  spent  for  candy  or  chewing  gum,  while 


The  Old  Cabin 
Made  into  a  School  Building 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  21 

the  nickel  was  to  go  into  the  iron  pig  on  the  shelf 
at  home  to  be  used  at  some  distant  day  when  I 
might  be  starting  out  for  college,  or  when  I  might 
want  to  be  an  expressman  and  buy  a  big  span  of 
Missouri  mules. 

To  my  father  anything  out  of  the  ordinary  was 
"  big."  There  were  "  big  guns,"  "  big  colonels," 
and  even  "  big  drummers."  But  what  most  quickly 
claimed  my  interest  was  to  hear  my  father  say  that 
it  was  going  to  be  a  "  big  day  "  down  town  and 
remark  to  my  mother  that  she  had  better  get  the 
boy  ready  rather  early  so  that  he  might  reach  the 
hotel  before  the  streets  were  too  crowded. 

Perhaps  the  occasion  would  be  a  circus,  and  of 
course  the  parade  would  pass  the  "  Pacific  " — they 
all  did ;  or  it  might  be  a  political  demonstration  of 
some  sort.  In  course  of  time  I  had  come  to  be  a 
vociferous  supporter  of  many  movements  and  plat- 
forms. One  among  the  spectators  crowding  the 
windows  and  balconies  of  the  hotel,  I  would  wave 
a  flag  or  banner  and  shrilly  cheer,  rooting  for  some- 
thing or  somebody  just  as  suited  whoever  had 
charge  of  me  at  the  moment.  Not  all  the  glitter 
of  bright-hued  trappings,  of  elephants  and  Shetland 
ponies,  of  monkeys  and  clowns,  thrilled  me  as  did 
austere  columns  of  men  marching  along,  timed  by 
the  splendid  blare  of  brass  horns  and  of  the  mutter 


22  PINEY  WOODS 

of  drums  and  the  squealing  of  fifes.  I  loved  it 
all — almost  too  intensely,  it  seemed,  for  there  "was 
something  about  it  that  overwhelmed  and  vaguely 
hurt  me,  and  that  to  the  heart  of  childhood  was  a 
great  and  infinite  mystery. 

As  for  Old  Glory,  as  my  father  always  called  a 
large  flag,  I  can  never  see  it  lift  its  colors  on  the 
breeze  without  poignantly  recalling  one  day — the 
awesome  day  on  which  for  the  first  time  I  saw  my 
father  cry,  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  him  "  break 
plumb  down  and  make  a  fool  of  himself" — that 
being  his  way  of  speaking  of  the  occasion  the  one 
time  that  I  heard  him  mention  it. 

He  and  I  were  on  our  way  downtown  one  morn- 
ing— I  do  not  remember  what  the  day  was,  whether 
it  was  Washington's  or  Lincoln's  birthday  or  what 
— but  anyway  on  the  front  of  a  building  abutting 
upon  the  walk  before  us  a  large  flag  hung  drooping 
and  inert  in  the  chill  morning  mist.  The  papers 
the  night  before  had  told  of  a  most  revolting  in- 
stance of  mob  violence,  and  as  my  father  spoke  of 
it  at  breakfast  his  face  looked  hard  and  set,  and 
the  steady,  steely  look  in  his  eyes  somehow  made 
him  seem  almost  a  stranger.  I  wondered  if  that 
was  the  way  he  used  to  look  when  he  was  a  sol- 
dier— "  United  States  Army,  oP  Company  K,  '67 
to  '76,  hon'able  discharge."  He  had  spoken  to  we 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  23 

but  once  since  we  left  the  house,  and  then  in  a  dull 
heavy  voice  that  was  as  unfamiliar  as  the  expres- 
sion on  his  face.  Childlike  I  felt  its  mood  and  was 
in  its  shadow,  and  that  short  trip  might  have  been 
remembered  even  without  further  distinction;  but 
terror  stalked  that  morning — tragedy  was  abroad. 

We  came  abreast  of  the  flag-decked  front,  and 
just  then  obeying  a  caprice  of  the  wind  the  banner 
lifted  in  the  grand  way  it  has  and  streamed  out 
just  above  us,  its  silken  breadth  spreading  out  with 
a  rush  and  rustle  that  would  have  lured  me,  mo- 
mentarily at  least,  from  my  woe,  only  as  it  reached 
its  greatest  expanse  it  seemed  to  fling  from  its  folds 
a  terrible  cry.  Stentorian,  wild,  sad,  defiant,  the 
sound  seemed  to  fill  all  the  air  and  to  die  away 
in  a  tremolo  that  left  the  soul  full  of  chill  and 
shudders.  That  cry,  I  somehow  realized  to  my 
heart-sickening,  paralyzing  terror,  had  been  uttered 
by  my  father — by  my  father!  Why? 

TJr-r-r-r-r-ee-woo-oo-aoo !  The  awful  sound  again  1 
My  father  had  come  to  an  abrupt  standstill,  hie 
eyes  gazing  unseeingly  upon  the  banner  and  far 
beyond  it  as  though  he  were  addressing  in  that 
queer  language  some  invisible  and  distant  throng. 
"  Oo  hoo-oo  I  Stan'  by  01'  Glory !  No  difference 
if  dey  lynches  a  black  man  every  day  for  forty 
years  I  We  kin  stand  it — us  black  folks — we  kin 


26  PINEY  WOODS 

stand  it  agin  de  day  of  reckonin' !  "  In  his  excite- 
ment my  Dad  had  gone  back  to  the  native  manner 
of  speech  which  he  so  carefully  tried  to  avoid  in 
calmer  moments.  "  OF  Glory's  still  a-wavin' ! 
Reckon  she's  gwine  a  be  de  shelter  and  de  kiverin 
for  a  cussed  thing  like  that  fo'ever?  No,  no!  by 

!"     His  clenched  fist  struck  my  shoulder  a 

blow  that  spun  me  around  and  I  should  have  fallen 
had  it  not  been  for  the  support  of  the  wall.  A 
harsh,  heavy  sob  choked  his  utterance,  and  watch- 
ing him,  my  own  face  wet  with  the  copious  tears 
of  childish  excitement  and  sympathy,  I  saw  big 
tears  roll  down  his  cheeks.  By  the  time  we  reached 
the  hotel,  however,  the  sun  had  come  out,  my  Dad 
was  himself  again,  and  all  was  well. 

As  I  grew  older  I  learned  more  and  more  to 
appreciate  my  father's  homely  wisdom,  his  droll 
sayings,  and  his  sturdy  way  of  facing  life.  He 
seemed  to  take  things  as  they  came,  but  whenever 
it  was  in  his  power  to  do  so  he  saw  to  it  that  they 
came  his  way.  He  was  ambitious  for  me,  but 
sometimes  expressed  himself  in  such  a  manner  that 
one  not  knowing  him  might  have  thought  he  had 
queer  ideas  as  to  an  occupation  for  me.  About  my 
childhood's  savings  bank,  for  instance,  he  always 
said  that  the  money  in  it  was  to  help  me  start  to 
college  or  to  help  me  buy  a  span  of  mules.  What 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  25 

he  really  meant  was  that  if  I  should  happen  to  fail 
to  get  to  college  I  should  be  prepared  to  do  some- 
thing else  to  make  myself  useful.  It  might  even 
develop  that  I  should  have  to  be  a  drayman  as  he 
was  when  he  first  started  out  for  himself;  and  if 
that  happened  he  at  least  wanted  me  to  have  a  good 
team  and  not  have  to  begin  with  a  pair  of  goats 
as  he  did.  I  should  in  any  case  be  that  much 
ahead  of  the  old  generation. 

It  was  very  interesting  to  hear  him  talk  of  his 
youthful  days  down  in  Alabama,  also  of  his  life 
in  the  army ;  and  it  seemed  almost  wonderful,  how 
through  so  many  hardships  and  temptations  he  de- 
veloped the  personality  that  made  him  a  general 
favorite,  the  ability  that  made  him  a  great  reader, 
and  the  character  that  earned  for  him  the  title 
"  Honest  John." 

As  for  his  attainments  in  life,  he  seemed  to  feel 
that  in  being  able  to  hold  down  the  job  at  the  hotel 
as  he  did,  he  had  traveled  far  and  achieved  much. 
Holding  the  idea  that  he  was  "  cut  out "  for  a 
porter,  he  considered  himself  fortunate  in  having 
found  his  niche.  No  doubt  there  were  higher  posi- 
tions, but  he  did  not  covet  them.  "  To  be  the  right 
man  in  the  right  place,"  he  would  say,  "  was  a  good 
enough  job  for  anybody."  Such  was  the  spirit  in 
which  for  all  those  years  he  did  his  work,  and  every 


26  PINEY  WOODS 

now  and  then,  coming  across  some  old  book  of  my 
boyhood,  I  am  as  proud  of  the  import  of  the  mis- 
spelled inscription  scrawled  on  the  fly-leaf  as  I  was 
when  I  first  wrote  it: 

"  Laurence  Jones,  Sun  of  Onest  John  Jones  use 
to  be  a  solger,  Potah  at '  Pacific  '  Hotel.  Old  Com- 
puny  K  'Onnabel  dischage.  St.  josef  Mussura." 

Such  easy-going  philosophy  as  my  father's  had 
little  place  in  my  mother's  conception  of  life,  either 
as  it  was  then  or  as  it  was  to  be  in  the  years  ahead. 
That  one  should  be  supinely  content  in  whatever 
place  he  chanced  to  fall  was  something  that  she 
simply  could  not  understand.  In  her  creed,  un- 
consciously and  unfalteringly  held,  to  do  well  ac- 
cording to  one's  strength  was  not  ambition  but  a 
plain,  unvarnished  duty.  It  was  what  we  were 
here  for — to  do  the  very  best  we  could,  and  only 
in  that  way  could  we  show  our  appreciation  of  life 
and  its  possibilities.  This  creed  was  not  only  a 
part  of  her  belief,  but  its  golden  thread  was  woven 
and  interwoven  in  her  nature;  so  that  aside  from 
the  sweetness  of  her  personality,  there  was  a 
strength,  an  irresistible  something  about  her,  that 
made  her  very  presence  a  power  for  good.  In  her 
heart  a  light  was  ever  glowing,  diffusing  radiance, 
courage,  and  enthusiasm  upon  all  around.  No 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  27 

towering  pine  in  her  native  Wisconsin  forests  ever 
pointed  upward  more  naturally  than  did  she  in  her 
ideals  of  life. 

A  fragile  little  woman  my  mother  was,  all  tem- 
perament and  dreams — in  reality  an  idealist,  yet 
possessing  that  intense  practical  industry  so  often 
demonstrated  by  the  women  of  her  race,  who  dream 
most  splendid  dreams  and  bravely  strive,  through 
the  humble  mediums  within  their  reach,  to  make 
their  dreams  come  true.  To  such  a  one  the  wash- 
tub  and  ironing-board,  the  cook-stove,  the  needle, 
and  the  scrubbing-brush,  are  all  but  homely  tools 
to  be  most  diligently  used.  The  average  unskilled 
colored  man,  hardworking  and  steady  though  he  be, 
earns  hardly  more  than  enough  to  provide  for  his 
family  a  meagre  livelihood,  and  further  than  that 
his  earnings  can  not  reach.  The  simple  luxuries, 
the  daintier  necessities  and  comforts,  the  little 
touches  of  beauty  here  and  there,  must  come  from 
another  hand.  Some  one  else  provides  the  pretty 
walls  and  hangings,  the  new  dress  for  a  special  oc- 
casion, perhaps  even  a  piano  or  a  porch  or  an  addi- 
tional room  on  the  house;  some  one  else  may  even 
send  the  son  or  daughter  away  to  college.  And 
who  has  not  seen  it — the  colored  woman  at  her 
work,  infusing  faith  into  her  drudgery,  toiling 
day  after  day,  year  after  year,  while  slowly  but 


28  PINEY  WOODS 

surely  her  surroundings  begin  to  assume  the  color 
of  her  dreams  ? 

Such  a  home-maker  was  my  mother;  and  yet  her 
work  was  such  that  she  was  away  from  home  much 
of  the  time.  She  was  an  excellent  seamstress  and 
often  went  out  to  sew  by  the  day,  and  she  also 
served  sometimes  at  ladies'  clubs  in  the  evening. 
Meanwhile  we  children — my  sister  and  myself — 
often  found  ourselves  and  the  house  in  the  care  of 
"  Aunt "  'Liza,  an  aged  woman  of  the  neighborhood 
who  made  her  living  by  helping  out  in  different 
homes,  and  who,  as  my  mother  and  everybody  else 
said,  was  as  good  an  old  soul  as  ever  lived. 

Aunt  'Liza  was  a  noted  character  in  the  church 
to  which  she  belonged,  a  class-meeting  priestess  of 
unique  distinction.  She  had  a  great  store  of  max- 
ims— "  Bible-teachings,"  she  called  them,  "  good 
for  the  healing  of  the  soul,"  and  these  she  drew 
upon  as  time  and  occasion  demanded.  "  Thou 
shellt  not  steal,"  she  said,  "  neither  sugar,  ner 
jelly,  ner  nothin'  else;"  "  Thou  shellt  not  tell  lies 
an'  b'ar  false  witness  agins'  thy  neighbor,  little 
sister  ner  brother  ner  nobody ;"  "  When  somebody 
fetch  you  a  clip  on  one  o'  yo'  cheeks,  turn  de  ether 
one,  an'  ef  he  fetch  you  a  clip  on  dat  one,  den  de 
Lawd  be  wid  de  righteous;"  "  Honor  yo'  pappy  and 
yo'  mammy,  an'  don't  be  sassin  an'  talkin'  back, 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  29 

kase  ehillun  should  be  seed  an'  not  hyeard."  There 
were  many  others  of  these  garbled  sayings,  but  the 
one  most  often  used  was :  "  Chillun  should  be  seed 
an'  not  hyeard." 

Sometimes  late  in  the  night  I  would  awake  and 
hear  Aunt  'Liza  "  agonizin'  in  pra'er,"  tearfully  be- 
seeching blessings  and  forgiveness  of  sins,  for  her- 
self, her  church,  her  friends  and  neighbors,  and  the 
whole,  round  world.  Sometimes  she  would  be  sing- 
ing softly,  reflectively,  rocking  back  and  forth  in 
her  low  chair  beside  the  fire — not  a  rocking-chair 
but  a  straight-back,  splint-bottomed  chair  that  she 
always  brought  in  from  the  kitchen.  The  room 
would  be  dim,  for  even  when  she  was  knitting  she 
wanted  the  lights  low  when  it  was  late.  If  the 
night  was  wild  or  dreary  the  hymn  never  failed  to 
end  in  tremulous  query — mournful,  haunting, 
weird  beyond  description: 

An-nd  am   I  a-borned   to-oo  die, 
To-oo  a-la-ay  this  a-body  down? 

On  another  night  without  prelude  or  warning 
the  song  would  ring  out  rapturously: 

Jos  look  a-yander  a-what  I  see — 
Hise  de  window,  let  de  dove  come  in; 

A  ban'  of  angels  a-«omin'  for  me — 

Oh!  hise  de  window,  let  de  dove  come  in. 

When  the  song  was  over,  however,  I  was  likely 


SO  PINEY  WOODS 

to  hear  something  like  this :  "  Laurence,  honey,  is 
you  wake?  You's  young  chil'  an'  souple  in  de 
jints;  wisht  you'd  git  up  an'  fetch  my  pieces  an' 
things;  I  been  off  a-juhilatin'  in  my  soul  an'  dat 
ornery  cat  done  ketched  my  basket — quilt  pieces, 
knittin'  an'  all,  an'  tuck  'em  way  back  under 
de  bed." 

My  mother  always  demanded  a  full  report  of  our 
behavior  during  her  absence,  and  if  we  had  been 
good  there  were  rewards  ensuing,  the  greatest  being 
one  of  the  wonderful  stories  that  my  mother  herself 
would  tell  in  her  wonderful  way.  Who  could  ever 
forget  such  hours  as  those  when  I  with  my  sisters 
listened  to  those  gripping  tales  ?  Sometimes  we 
were  on  a  bench  in  the  kitchen;  on  summer  even- 
ings out  on  the  little  front  porch  in  the  moonlight; 
but  best  of  all  were  the  winter  evenings  in  the  front 
room  by  the  fire. 

As  I  was  the  only  boy  in  the  family,  all  the 
hopes  and  ambitions  that  the  maternal  heart  cher- 
ishes were  centered  upon  me.  I  was  expected  to 
possess  all  the  commendable  traits  of  my  ancestors. 
Also  it  seemed  to  be  expected  that  I  should  emu- 
late all  the  men  of  my  race  who  had  come  into 
prominence  since  the  founding  of  America.  Mean- 
while, to  all  else,  it  was  understood  that  I  should 
add  something  of  my  own  individuality.  In  the 


MY  OWN  BEGINNINGS  31 

family  it  was  fondly  hoped  that  I  might  be  "  cut 
out "  for  a  lawyer,  a  doctor,  an  editor,  a  minister, 
a  "  big "  business  man,  a  professor ;  I  might  get 
into  Congress;  and — what  seemed  to  my  childish 
mind  most  impossible  of  all — I  had  to  be  a  gentle- 
man. Last,  but  not  least  among  the  responsibilities 
awaiting  me  when  I  grew  up,  I  was  to  be  a  man — 
the  one  decision  that  had  my  own  fervent  approval. 
In  this  I  should  be  like  my  father,  so  often  admir- 
ingly described  as  a  "  man ;"  and  also  like  my 
mother's  kinsmen,  of  whom  she  often  talked — all 
"  men." 

On  one  of  these  kinsmen,  strange  prophecy  of 
the  future,  my  mind  somehow  lingers  to-day.  My 
great-grandfather  was  born  in  Virginia,  but  while 
yet  a  young  man  purchased  his  freedom  and  re- 
moved to  Pennsylvania.  There  Robert  Foster,  my 
mother's  father,  was  born.  This  grandfather  of 
mine,  I  have  learned,  was  wholly  or  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  founding  of  an  educational  insti- 
tution in  Michigan  in  1848.  At  that  time  colored 
people  were  not  admitted  to  the  public  schools  of 
Ohio;  and  Robert  Foster  and  some  of  his  brothers 
and  friends  decided  to  establish  a  school  for  their 
children,  which  they  did  after  going  to  Michigan. 
The  institution  thus  founded  waa  open  to  all  "  re- 
gardless of  color,  sex,  or  religious  affiliation,"  and 


32  PINEY  WOODS 

was  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  the  state  of 
Michigan  as  a  manual  labor  institute.  So  far  as 
we  have  been  able  to  learn,  this  was  the  first  school 
to  be  established  in  this  country  for  industrial 
training  of  colored  boys  and  girls. 

Once  a  year  Foster  would  go  east  to  solicit  funds 
and  make  friends  for  the  race.  So  on  my  fre- 
quent pilgrimages  upon  a  similar  mission  I  have 
to  remember  that,  after  all,  I  have  come  by  my 
inheritance  justly;  I  am  simply  "taking  after" 
my  grandfather. 


n 

SCHOOLDAYS 

I  WELL  remember  my  first  day  at  school. 
First  my  mother  kissed  me  and  said  good- 
bye, and  after  I  got  to  the  building  Miss 
Sadie  gave  me  a  seat,  and  then  everything  seemed 
to  grow  dim  and  lonely.  Within  a  few  minutes  a 
big  tear  rolled  down  my  burning  cheek ;  others  fol- 
lowed, and  still  more  when  I  looked  around  to  find 
everybody  gazing  at  me.  Miss  Sadie  called  me  to 
her  desk  and  asked  what  was  the  matter,  and  be- 
tween sobs  I  told  her  that  I  was  tired,  sleepy,  and 
hungry,  and  that  my  mother  needed  me  at  home. 
She  said  that  any  little  boy  with  all  those  things 
the  matter  with  him  surely  ought  to  be  excused  for 
a  little  while.  So  my  mother  had  been  home  only 
a  few  minutes  when  she  saw  me  coming  into  the 
yard  astride  the  shoulders  of  a  larger  boy  who  had 
volunteered  to  carry  me  back. 

After  the  first  day,  however,  the  schoolroom  be- 
came more  attractive,  and  within  the  next  few  years 
I  passed  through  the  different  grades  of  the  gram- 

33 


34  PINEY  WOODS 

mar  department.  My  first  outside  work  was  that  of 
shining  shoes;  somewhat  later  I  helped  the  porter 
shine  shoes  in  Billy  Khodes'  barber  shop,  the  larg- 
est in  the  town  at  the  time.  Then  in  one  memor- 
able autumn  I  entered  the  high  school.  Here  I 
found  that  I  was  not  very  enthusiastic  about  Latin 
and  similar  studies.  I  had  found  that  the  more 
boots  I  blacked  the  better  I  could  get  along,  and  I 
wanted  something  that  would  be  a  help  in  the 
future. 

Another  thing  that  made  me  want  a  more  prac- 
tical education  was  a  famous  old  book  that  had 
been  sent  to  me  from  Rock  Island  by  my  Aunt 
Sally.  This  was  "  Robinson  Crusoe,"  the  first  book, 
after  the  Bible,  that  made  any  deep  impression 
upon  me.  I  read  it  on  an  average  of  once  a 
month,  and  spent  my  spare  time  trying  to  find  an- 
other book  just  like  it.  The  story  of  the  free,  un- 
trammeled  life  of  the  hero,  making  his  own  civil- 
ization, overcoming  physical  obstacles  by  his  re- 
sourcefulness and  building  and  making  things  with 
his  hands  to  meet  his  needs,  impressed  me  greatly. 
In  comparison  with  such  a  life  the  things  that  I 
was  studying  in  the  high  school  seemed  vain  and 
futile,  and  by  the  close  of  my  first  half-year  my 
work  in  the  St.  Joseph  High  School  had  become 
unendurable. 


SCHOOLDAYS  35 

I  Have  no  doubt  that  this  book  and  the  con- 
structive stories  told  in  the  Bible  led  my  mind  and 
hands  into  constructive  play  when  not  at  work.  I 
had  the  best  backyard  garden  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  our  chickens  always  looked  the  best  and  pro- 
duced the  most  eggs.  I  also  kept  the  loft  of  our 
barn  filled  with  pigeons,  and  I  had  them  of  every 
description,  size,  and  color. 

I  was  generally  leading  our  "  gang "  into  some 
new  enterprise.  Once  it  was  a  two-ringed  circus, 
with  a  parade,  clowns,  the  necessary  monkey,  and 
red  lemonade.  Another  incident  that  I  remember, 
and  one  that  brought  down  the  ire  of  my  mother, 
was  a  game  that  I  invented  in  the  backyard.  I 
never  had  much  luck  shooting  marbles,  so  I  worked 
out  a  scheme  to  get  my  share.  I  cut  out  the  tops 
of  several  tomato  cans,  obtained  some  red  paint  and 
painted  some  round  spots  of  the  same  size  all  over 
a  board  which  had  sides  and  a  back;  this  board  I 
placed  against  the  barn  about  two  feet  higher  than 
the  ground.  The  game  was  three  of  the  tomato 
can  tops  for  a  "  crockey  "  or  seven  for  a  "  flint " — 
that  is,  anyone  who  could  stand  back  at  the  required 
distance  and  cover  up  one  of  the  spots  by  pitching 
his  tins  would  receive  so  many  marbles  reward. 
The  news  soon  spread  over  the  neighborhood,  and 
within  a  few  hours  there  were  half  a  hundred  boys 


36  PINEY  WOODS 

of  every  size  and  color  on  hand.  I  was  just  in 
the  midst  of  my  triumph  and  had  accumulated 
three  or  four  boxes  of  marbles  when  my  mother, 
seeing  the  swarming  crowd,  appeared,  and  in  less 
time  than  it  takes  to  tell  it,  there  was  not  a  boy 
in  sight,  my  board  was  reduced  to  kindling  wood, 
and  the  marbles  were  flying  after  the  scurrying 
boys. 

Some  of  my  most  interesting  experiences  in  these 
early  years  happened  in  the  days  when  I  was  a 
"  newsie  " — the  first  and  only  colored  boy  at  the 
time  on  a  route.  This  I  had  been  able  to  purchase 
with  money  I  had  saved  from  the  sale  of  rabbits 
and  pigeons.  It  did  not  cost  much,  this  route,  but 
the  experience  it  brought  me — surpassing  the  lure 
and  benefit  of  gold,  shriving  and  fitting  me  for  the 
arena  of  human  action  and  struggle  where  no  quar- 
ter is  asked  or  given — can  not  be  measured  in 
dollars  or  cents.  The  paper  was  The  Press,  and 
the  various  boys  handling  the  route  had  one  by  one 
got  out  of  it  all  they  could  and  then  dropped  it. 
The  circulation  manager,  put  to  it,  had  picked  up 
boys  here  and  there  as  he  could  get  them  and  thus 
the  paper  would  often  fail  of  delivery  for  days  at 
a  time.  Sometimes,  too,  the  boys  would  carry  but 
a  portion  of  the  route,  hiding  the  remainder  of 
their  papers  under  a  bridge  or  even  throwing  them 


SCHOOLDAYS  37 

away.  I  made  it  a  point  to  be  on  time  each  even- 
ing to  obtain  my  papers,  for  it  was  fall  and  dark- 
ness came  early.  My  father  had  taught  me  always 
to  "  be  at  the  right  place  at  the  right  time,"  and  I 
realized  that  because  of  my  race,  to  succeed  I 
should  be  compelled  to  exhibit  greater  industry, 
efficiency,  and  intelligence  than  the  white  boys  who 
had  worked  before  me.  I  knew  a  boy  who  had  a 
whistle  made  out  of  a  piece  of  wood  and  I  traded 
him  a  pigeon  for  it,  and  each  evening  when  I  threw 
the  paper  on  a  porch  I  would  blow  the  whistle. 
Never  an  evening  did  I  miss,  regardless  of  cold  or 
rain  or  snow,  and  never  an  evening  did  I  fail  to 
go  to  the  end  of  my  route,  although  the  last  mile 
had  but  two  subscribers.  Within  a  month  I  had 
sixty-four  customers,  and  in  the  second  month  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight,  so  that  I  was  compelled 
to  secure  help  to  carry  the  papers  part  of  the  way. 

It  was  about  the  time  my  route  had  grown  to  its 
greatest  extent  that  one  of  the  most  pointed  lessons 
of  my  life  came  to  me.  The  paper,  delivered,  cost 
ten  cents  a  week,  and  my  customers  were  all  of  the 
working  class;  they  largely  did  their  business  in 
units  of  nickels  and  dimes,  and  all  planned  to  have 
their  dimes  ready  on  Saturday  night.  One  bitterly 
cold  Saturday  night  I  had  started  unusually  early 
to  cover  my  route  as  there  was  to  be  an  entertain- 


- 


38  PINEY  WOODS 

ment  and  festival  at  our  church,  and  I  was  to  meet 
my  parents  and  sisters  there.  At  the  house  next 
to  the  last  the  lady  handed  me  a  quarter.  I  reached 
in  my  pocket  for  the  change,  but  to  my  great 
chagrin  I  could  not  find  a  cent.  For  a  moment  I 
was  dumb.  I  searched  again  and  in  one  of  my 
pockets  found  a  hole  almost  large  enough  for  a 
quarter  to  go  through,  and  I  realized  that  I  had 
left  a  trail  of  nickels  and  dimes  behind  me.  I 
handed  the  quarter  back  to  the  lady  saying  I  would 
collect  for  two  weeks  the  coming  Saturday  night, 
and  on  my  way  to  the  last  house  a  conflict  raged  in 
my  mind  as  to  what  I  should  do.  Against  the  lure 
of  a  trail  of  shiny  nickels  and  dimes  lost  somewhere 
was  that  of  the  church  gathering  with  the  concert, 
the  merry  crowd,  and  the  good  things  to  eat.  By 
the  time  I  reached  the  house,  however,  my  mind 
was  made  up :  I  must  find  that  money,  only  a  part 
of  which  belonged  to  me.  I  told  the  man  in  the 
house  of  my  trouble  and  obtained  from  him  the 
loan  of  a  lantern,  telling  him  to  keep  his  dime  in 
payment  for  his  kindness.  He  said  that  were  he 
I  he  would  let  the  search  go  until  morning;  but 
he  spoke  to  no  avail.  I  knew  the  alleys,  crosscuts, 
and  yards  through  which  I  always  went;  I  could 
trace  them  in  the  dark.  After  reaching  the  spot 
where  the  money  had  started  filtering  through  my 


SCHOOLDAYS  39 

pocket  I  had  found  every  nickel  and  dime  less 
fifty-five  cents,  which  I  was  sure  people  passing 
had  picked  up,  the  gaps  in  the  silver  trail  being 
under  the  arc-lights.  I  had  lost  something — much 
to  a  struggling  Negro  boy  pursued  by  suspicion; 
but  I  had  also  gained  something — something  far 
more  valuable  than  gold  and  silver,  and  that  has 
sustained  my  faith  and  strengthened  my  will 
through  many  dark  days  in  life's  problems. 

It  was  shortly  after  this  that  I  applied  to  Mr. 
Luther  Perry,  a  colored  man  who  ran  a  mattress 
factory  a  short  distance  from  our  home,  for  a  job 
shaking  out  bales  of  excelsior.  Mr.  Perry  was  a 
good,  clean  man,  a  Sunday  School  superintendent, 
and  he  did  not  allow  any  swearing,  smoking,  or 
roughness  of  any  kind  about  the  place.  I  called 
for  a  bale  and  one  was  assigned  to  me.  The  bales 
weighed  about  five  hundred  pounds  and  were  made 
of  long  strands  of  shavings  tightly  pressed  together. 
The  job  was  to  pull  the  flakes  apart  and  shake  them 
out  until  no  lumps  remained.  I  worked  faithfully 
that  first  evening,  yet  succeeded  in  getting  only 
about  one-third  done.  And  what  a  pile  it  made, 
with  two-thirds  of  the  bale  still  before  me !  Worst 
of  all,  when  I  went  back  it  looked  a3  if  someone 
had  added  about  two-thirds  more.  Of  course  I  was 
the  laughing-stock  of  the  place  until  my  unenviable 


40  PINEY  WOODS 

prominence  was  taken  by  another  newcomer;  but 
I  soon  became  accustomed  to  the  work  and  never 
again  did  I  have  to  work  a  whole  week  for  thirty 
cents. 

I  rejoice  when  I  think  of  the  fact  that  in  old 
Missouri,  a  former  slave  state,  the  public  library 
was  open  to  all  who  had  a  mind  to  read ;  and  there 
I  spent  many  an  hour  that  filled  me  with  inspiration. 
I  had  also  heard  my  mother  speak  of  Boston  and  its 
wonderful  schools  and  colleges.  I  felt  that  it  must 
be  the  greatest  place  in  the  world — that  all  one  had 
to  do  was  to  get  there  and  all  good  and  desirable 
things  would  be  as  free  as  the  water  of  the  rivers. 
The  people  there,  it  seemed,  were  standing  ready 
and  waiting  to  provide  an  education  for  all  who 
knocked  at  their  doors;  there  also  all  troubles 
would  be  over.  One  day  I  talked  the  matter  over 
with  myself  and  secretly  decided  to  go  there.  I 
had  eighteen  dollars  saved  from  shoe-shining  and 
selling  papers.  I  put  this  amount  in  my  pocket, 
hid  my  books  under  the  railroad  bridge,  and  set 
out.  My  fare  was  paid  to  Rock  Island;  there  I 
planned  to  stop  and  tell  my  Aunt  Sally  and  Uncle 
Charley  good-bye.  When  I  got  there,  however,  I 
found  that  my  father  and  mother,  suspecting  my 
destination,  had  wired  them  to  look  out  for  me.  I 
did  not  get  to  Boston  at  this  time,  and  in  general 


SCHOOLDAYS  41 

my  visits  in  these  years  were  divided  between  this 
home  and  that  of  my  Aunt  Dot  and  Uncle  Bill, 
who  lived  not  far  away  at  Cedar  Rapids.  Aunt 
Dot  was  prone  to  make  a  real  pet  out  of  any 
child  about  her,  and  it  is  likely  that  I  should  have 
grown  lazy  enough  had  it  not  been  for  one  thing. 
Uncle  Bill  was  an  engineer  and  worked  in  all  sorts 
of  fascinating  places ;  he  was  engineer  and  foreman 
at  the  electric  light  plant  and  fireman  at  Averill's 
Wagon  Plant,  the  son  and  the  daughter  of  the 
owner  of  which  place  are  now  very  loyal  supporters 
of  the  Piney  Woods  School.  Uncle  Bill  was  a 
jovial  man  and  liked  to  talk;  he  permitted  me  to 
go  with  him  to  his  work,  and  the  way  he  always 
explained  the  machinery  to  me  made  me  love  it 
and  also  taught  me  to  realize  how  wonderful  a 
thing  a  machine  can  be.  After  a  while  he  went  to 
Marshalltown,  Iowa,  and  that  is  how  it  happened 
that  I  entered  the  high  school  in  this  place.  I  waa 
encouraged  to  go  also  by  the  fact  that  I  learned 
that  there  was  a  restaurant  there  kept  by  a  colored 
man  with  whom  I  might  find  work.  I  found 
"  Bob's  Place,"  as  I  had  expected,  and  there 
I  worked  for  a  couple  of  years ;  but  the  red  demon 
whiskey  got  the  better  of  Bob,  his  place  became  a 
little  rowdy  and  business  declined,  and  so  I  sought 
and  found  work  at  the  Pilgrim  Hotel. 


42  PINEY  WOODS 

It  was  during  my  high-school  days  in  Marshall- 
town  that  my  first  realization  of  the  work  young 
white  men  were  doing  came  to  me.  One  young 
man  who  was  a  bell-boy  in  the  hotel  where  I 
worked  for  my  room  and  board,  was  promoted  to 
the  position  of  night  clerk.  No  one  knew  whence 
he  had  come  and  he  had  not  even  finished  the  gram- 
mar school.  At  that  time  the  position  of  night 
clerk  in  the  Pilgrim  Hotel  looked  pretty  big  to  me, 
and  I  wondered  if  I  could  hope  for  such  a  promo- 
tion after  I  finished  my  course.  My  own  regular 
work  was  to  help  the  girls  in  the  dining-room.  I 
assisted  at  breakfast  until  8.50,  then  hastened  to 
school;  came  back  at  noon  and  worked  until  1.10, 
and  then  helped  with  supper  in  the  evening.  At 
night  I  was  on  the  lookout  for  an  opportunity  to 
make  a  little  extra  money  for  my  expenses,  and 
because  of  this  I  worked  at  nearly  everything  about 
the  hotel.  When  a  bell-boy,  porter,  fireman,  dish- 
washer, or  bootblack  wanted  an  evening  off  or  was 
ill,  I  usually  worked  in  his  place.  Quite  often  I 
was  called  out  to  serve  parties  in  the  town,  and  I 
also  had  the  job  of  swinging  the  front  door  for  the 
members  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Club  at  their 
monthly  meetings,  for 'which  I  received  a  dollar  an 
evening,  and,  best  of  all,  a  chance  to  hear  the 
programs. 


SCHOOLDAYS  43 

The  coming  of  two  young  men,  Ellis  U.  Graff, 
as  principal  of  the  high  school,  and  William  I. 
Crane,  as  superintendent  of  schools,  gave  me  a  new 
knowledge  of  what  young  white  men  were  doing. 
We  had  heard  a  great  deal  of  how  Mr.  Crane  had 
built  up  the  schools  in  another  place;  he  gave  a 
series  of  lectures  at  the  court  house  which,  alto- 
gether, made  us  look  upon  him  very  much  as  the 
people  did  the  schoolmaster  in  "  The  Deserted  Vil- 
lage," and  wonder  how  "  one  small  head  could 
carry  all  he  knew."  Mr.  Graff  brought  youth,  en- 
thusiasm, and  an  unusual  sympathy.  I  remember 
once  carrying  to  him  a  clipping  of  the  Socialist 
platform  and  asking  him  to  explain  it  to  me.  He 
took  it  and  told  me  to  come  in  after  school  was 
over;  when  I  did  he  had  carefully  written  out  an 
explanation  of  each  article.  I  marveled  that  he 
should  give  so  much  time  and  attention  to  me,  for 
previous  principals  that  I  had  known  were  rather 
rough  and  unsympathetic.  Later,  having  heard 
that  Dr.  Crossland,  of  St.  Joseph,  had  been  ap- 
pointed Minister  to  Liberia,  I  wondered,  not  being 
acquainted  with  the  game  of  politics,  whether  I 
could  become  his  secretary,  as  I  had  once  been  a 
collector  for  him.  I  told  Mr.  Graff  of  my  aspira- 
tion; he  encouraged  me  and  said  that  my  applica- 
tion, could  not  do  any  harm,  and  that  at  least  I 


44  PINEY  WOODS 

should  gain  by  writing  it.     Of  course  I  received  an 
answer  that  the  appointment  had  been  made. 

On  Mr.  Graff's  recommendation  I  was  asked  to 
be  grammar  grade  editor  of  the  Quill,  our  little 
high-school  paper.  This  necessitated  my  visiting 
the  grade  schools  and  explaining  that  we  wanted  to 
have  them  represented  with  monthly  notes.  At  one 
school  the  principal  asked  me  to  explain  the  matter 
to  three  or  four  of  the  higher  classes.  Thus  I  made 
my  first  speeches. 

For  my  share  of  the  Commencement  program  at 
the  end  of  the  course  I  was  assigned  the  pleasant 
task  of  writing  the  class  song.  While  I  was  wait- 
ing for  the  Muse  to  inspire  me  the  others  of  the 
class  began  to  get  nervous,  and  some  even  went  to 
the  principal  to  lay  the  matter  before  him.  The 
next  day  one  of  the  boys  asked  me  about  the  song 
and  told  me  that  they  were  a  little  worried  and  had 
consulted  Mr.  Graff  about  what  to  do.  I  asked 
what  he  had  said,  and  was  informed  that  he  had 
laughed  and  remarked,  "  Oh !  Jones  will  come  up 
with  it  all  right."  This  was  a  revelation  to  me. 
Eor  the  first  time  I  realized  that  someone  had  con- 
fidence in  me.  I  can  not  explain  the  new  lease 
of  life  I  took.  I  should  have  written  that  song  or 
died  in  the  attempt,  and  the  next  morning  I  had  it 
ready.  When  the  diplomas  were  being  given  out 


SCHOOLDAYS  45 

N 

at  Commencement  and  it  came  my  turn  to  walk 
across  the  stage  and  receive  mine,  the  opera  house 
burst  into  applause  and  I  nearly  fainted  with 
fright.  That  night  in  my  little  room  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  hotel  it  dawned  upon  me  that  as  I  was 
the  first  colored  graduate  of  the  Marshalltown 
High  School  the  people  had  their  eyes  upon  me, 
and  I  felt  that  I  must  now  make  good  in  one  way 
or  another.  That  was  in  1903. 

While  in  iMarshalltown  I  always  looked  forward 
to  Sunday  with  a  special  degree  of  pleasure;  first, 
because  the  day  meant  the  coming  of  several  of 
the  townspeople  to  dinner  and  that  meant  extra 
tips,  and,  second,  because  there  were  the  afternoon 
meetings  at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  In  St.  Joseph  the 
color  of  my  skin  had  been  a  bar  against  joining 
or  visiting  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Aside  from  the  churches  there  was  no  place  to 
which  to  go  on  Sunday  afternoons  except  the  ball 
games,  amusement  parks,  or  on  railway  excursions. 
In  Iowa  everything  was  different.  The  doors  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  swung  wide  open  for  any  young 
man  who  would  live  in  a  clean,  wholesome  atmos- 
phere. I  soon  became  a  member,  and  the  swim- 
ming pool,  the  reading-room,  and  the  gymnasium 
allured  me  at  all  idle  times.  Here  for  the  first 
time  on  Sunday  afternoons  I  heard  big,  strong 


46  PINEY  WOODS 

young  men  under  the  leadership  of  our  boyish  hero, 
S.  W.  Fellingham,  stand  up  and  in  no  uncertain 
terms  acknowledge  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
leadership  of  Jesus  Christ.  How  I  enjoyed  and 
received  strength  from  those  Sunday  afternoon 
meetings  I 

I  had  graduated  from  the  high  school,  but  I 
realized  that  I  knew  but  little,  so  I  determined  to 
enter  a  business  college  whife  deciding  how  I 
should  continue  my  regular  school  work.  Accord- 
ingly, at  the  Central  Iowa  Business  College  I  se- 
cured a  job  as  janitor  which  would  pay  for  my  tui- 
tion while  I  could  still  work  for  my  room  and 
board  at  the  hotel.  Here  I  met  the  principal,  Mr. 
W.  H.  Gilbert,  a  young  man  who  was  running  a 
large  business  college  in  a  businesslike  way,  but 
who  was  never  too  busy  to  explain  any  difficulty. 
During  the  summer,  while  I  was  waiting  at  table 
one  noon,  Mr.  Graff  and  a  number  of  men  were 
seated  at  my  table.  As  they  were  getting  up  Mr. 
Graff  introduced  me  to  a  Mr.  Chesney  from  the 
State  University.  Mr.  Chesney  smiled,  acknowl- 
edged the  introduction,  and  told  me  that  the  Uni- 
versity was  just  the  place  at  which  I  should  finish 
my  education,  and  said  that  he  had  no  doubt  that 
as  I  worked  my  way  tuition  would  be  remitted. 
Later  I  had  a  conference  with  Mr.  Graff  and  came 


Winter  and  the  Woodpile 
First  Corn  of  the  Season 


SCHOOLDAYS  47 

to  the  decision  to  enter  the  institution  in  the  fall. 
,1  was  further  encouraged  in  this  decision  by  Hrs. 
Richard  Lane,  now  of  Davenport,  who  gave  me  a 
letter  to  a  memher  of  the  Beta  Theta  Pi  Fraternity 
which  secured  for  me  there  a  place  where  I  could 
work  for  my  room  and  hoard.  Accordingly,  after 
the  county  superintendent,  Miss  Hostettler,  had 
signed  certain  papers  necessary  for  having  my  tui- 
tion remitted,  I  set  out  for  Iowa  City.  I  soon  he- 
came  a  real  freshman;  and  my  desire  for  eleva- 
tion in  the  mental  world  was  reinforced  from  a 
physical  standpoint,  for  my  room  at  the  club  house 
was  in  one  corner  of  the  attic,  and  I  was  now 
higher  above  the  ground  than  I  had  been  below  the 
ground  at  Marshalltown,  and  could  but  smile  at  my 
good  fortune.  During  my  sophomore  year  I  met 
in  class  a  young  man,  Mr.  Frederick  R.  Cooper, 
whom  I  soon  grew  to  like  because  of  his  friendli- 
ness and  our  interest  in  the  same  things,  and  for 
my  last  two  years  in  Iowa  City  I  worked  at  his 
fraternity,  the  Delta  Tau  Delta.  My  university 
day  usually  started  at  4.30  in  the  morning,  when 
I  would  build  a  fire  in  the  furnace,  and  I  could 
hardly  reach  my  room  at  night  before  nine  o'clock ; 
then  I  would  be  busy  with  the  preparation  of  my 
work  for  the  next  day  until  eleven  or  twelve 
o'clock. 


48  PINEY  WOODS 

During  my  sophomore  year  I  heard  our  Presi- 
dent, Dr.  George  E.  MacLean,  use  the  phrase, 
"  Noblesse  Oblige,"  and  one  day  in  the  botany 
class  Professor  Thomas  H.  MacBride  explained  to 
me  its  meaning.  More  than  ever  I  realized  that 
because  of  the  superior  advantages  for  schooling 
that  had  been-mine,  I  was  morally  obligated  to  pass 
the  opportunity  on  to  those  less  fortunate  than  my- 
self. I  believe  I  had  always  had  a  subconscious 
desire  to  be  a  school  teacher,  but  I  had  also  cher- 
ished a  desire  to  engage  in  the  poultry  business. 
One  of  my  fondest  dreams  was  to  realize  money 
enough  from  this  business  some  day  to  cross  the 
ocean  and  see  the  countries  of  the  Old  World. 
"  Noblesse  Oblige,"  however,  taught  me  that  my 
duty  was  down  in  the  black  belt  among  the  less  for- 
tunate of  my  people. 

This  conviction  came  to  me  strongly  in  my 
junior  year  through  the  "  Industrial  Art "  class 
work  of  Professor  Clark  Fisher  Ansley.  It  was 
seminar  work,  and  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
year  I  was  assigned  the  task  of  developing  a  theme 
on  the  work  of  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington.  I  pro- 
ceeded to  read  and  re-read  this  leader's  books  and 
to  look  up  every  magazine  article  listed  in  the 
various  indexes.  The  result  was  that  I  got  to- 
gether an  interesting  amount  of  material  and  for 


SCHOOLDAYS  49 

the  first  time  realized  the  meaning  of  the  poet's 
phrase,  "  Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul,"  when 
I  learned  that  Mark  Hopkins  taught  General  S.  C. 
Armstrong,  and  that  General  Armstrong  taught 
and  inspired  Booker  T.  Washington.  Most  of  the 
class  members  had  been  given  an  hour  each  to  the 
topics  assigned,  but  I  was  so  full  of  my  subject 
that  I  was  given  six  hours.  A  member  of  the  class 
who  was  on  the  staff  of  the  city  papers  gave  a  re- 
view of  each  lecture  to  the  various  papers.  I  called 
the  attention  of  the  class  to  the  fact  that  the  Negro 
race  had  many  other  great  men,  distinguished  in 
various  lines,  who  simply  happened  not  to  be  so 
well  known  as  Dr.  Washington.  One  of  the  high- 
est expressions  of  Negro  life  and  achievement,  I 
said,  was  to  be  found  in  the  life,  personality,  and 
writings  of  Dr.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois.  From  indus- 
trial training  to  the  scholarship  of  Dr.  DuBois 
seemed  a  long  step,  but  it  showed  the  possibilities 
of  the  Negro.  I  further  said  that  Dr.  DuBois  was 
not  opposing  industrial  education  but  that  his  great 
contention  was  that  there  was  not  so  much  a 
"  Negro  Problem "  as  a  "  Human  Problem,"  as 
Frederick  Douglass  once  said,  and  that  industrial 
education  was  no  more  a  means  for  the  complete 
development  of  the  Negro  than  any  other  kind  of 
education.  I  also  read  some  passages  from  the 


60  PINEY  WOODS 

beautiful  and  fascinating  "  Souls  of  Black  Folk," 
which  book  so  impressed  me  that  I  decided  to  pur- 
chase a  copy  and  present  it  to  my  English  teacher, 
Miss  Mary  G.  Chawner,  in  appreciation  of  the  in- 
terest and  help  she  had  given  me  in  my  courses. 

A  short  while  after  this  another  of  my  teachers, 
Miss  Leona  Call,  who  was  president  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  Missionary  Society,  asked  me  to 
talk  on  the  condition  of  my  people  in  the  South. 
The  day  of  the  meeting  I  met  a  young  colored 
woman,  Miss  Grace  M.  Allen,  who  was  in  town  in 
the  interest  of  an  industrial  school  in  the  South. 
I  asked  her  to  attend  the  meeting  and  contribute 
something  from  her  experience.  So  she  did,  and 
I  thought  her  the  brightest  and  most  enthusiastic 
little  woman  of  my  race  that  I  had  ever  met.  I 
saw  in  her  my  ideal  and  felt  sure  that  we  should 
meet  again  some  day — and  we  did. 

During  my  last  two  summers  in  Iowa  City  I 
realized  my  Pilgrim  Hotel  ambition  by  becoming 
a  night  clerk  at  one  of  the  local  hotels.  Several 
of  the  guests  registered  their  prejudice  by  going  to 
the  landlord,  but  he  told  them  that  he  was  running 
the  hotel,  and  I  went  on  with  my  work.  One 
evening  at  the  close  of  my  senior  year — commence- 
ment week,  1907 — while  I  was  waiting  at  table,  a 
gold  watch  was  presented  to  me  by  the  members 


SCHOOLDAYS  51 

of  the  Delta  Tan  Delta  Fraternity;  and  next  to 
the  ovation  given  me  in  Marshalltown  this  was  the 
greatest  surprise  of  my  life.  Then  came  com- 
mencement day  and  with  it  the  Secretary  of  War,. 
William  Howard  Taft,  who  delivered  the  gradua- 
tion address.  Once  more  I  had  completed  a  pre- 
scribed course  of  study.  Once  more  I  looked  out 
upon  the  world  and  realized  how  little  I  really 
knew. 


in 

PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY 

WHY  in  the  world  did  you  ever  go 
South  ? "  is  the  common  query  when 
I  journey  North.  To  most  of  my 
friends  the  North  is  still  the  land  of  opportunity 
as  well  as  freedom,  and  they  hardly  see  how  one 
can  exist  elsewhere.  Almost  unconsciously,  how- 
ever, I  had  decided  to  go  South.  Perhaps  this  was 
my  modernized  version  of  "  Go  West,  young  man," 
yet  as  the  years  have  passed  I  have  come  to  see 
in  it  more  clearly  the  hand  of  God  who  had  heard 
the  cries  of  my  people  in  the  woods  for  the  oppor- 
tunities of  education  which  were  being  denied  them. 
At  any  rate  I  packed  my  trunk,  and  without  notify- 
ing relatives  or  friends,  I  set  out.  I  first  went  to 
Arkansas  to  become  used  to  the  Southern  climate. 
Here  I  found  a  job  looking  after  a  horse  and  car- 
riage and  milking  a  cow.  Meanwhile  I  was  in  cor- 
respondence with  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington's 
great  Tuskegee  Institute  and  was  in  line  for  a 
place  there,  but  decided  to  go  to  a  little  school  in 

52 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      53 

Hinds  county,  'Mississippi,  an  outgrowth  of  Tuske- 
gee.  The  salary  was  smaller,  but  somehow  it 
seemed  that  greater  good  could  be  done  there. 

Christmas  of  the  second  year  I  spent  at  the 
plantation  home  of  one  of  my  students,  who  was 
from  the  Piney  Woods  of  Mississippi  near  Brax- 
ton,  which  is  in  that  part  of  the  state  between  Jack- 
son and  Gulfport,  on  the  Gulf  and  Ship  Island 
Railway. 

And  what  a  holiday  season  it  was!  As  else- 
where in  the  South,  "  taking  Christmas  "  was  one 
continuous  round  of  fireworks,  frolicking,  feasting, 
and  preaching  services  that  sometimes  lasted 
throughout  the  day  and  that  were  interrupted 
only  by  the  calls  to  the  well-laden  tables  just  out- 
side the  church.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  a  district 
Sunday  School  convention  was  in  session,  and  I 
was  asked  to  speak  each  day.  I  learned  that  the 
convention  had  been  organized  twenty-five  years 
before  and  that  its  aim  was  to  build  a  high  school. 
By  this  was  meant  a  school  that  would  carry  the 
boys  and  girls  to  what  in  the  North  are  termed  the 
seventh  and  eighth  grades.  The  little  rural  schools 
were  many  miles  apart,  and  the  teachers  were  not 
paid  over  an  average  of  $18.00  a  month,  and 
hardly  measured  up  to  Northern  boys  and  girls  in 
the  fifth  and  sixth  grades.  One  teacher  often  had 


64  PINEY  WOODS 

as  many  as  sixty  or  seventy  pupils.  The  school- 
houses  were  unceiled,  black  with  soot,  without  glass 
windows,  and  with  no  blackboards.  A  high  school 
had  been  a  forlorn  hope;  no  one  seemed  to  know 
just  what  to  do,  and  the  mites  brought  together 
from  time  to  time  rarely  amounted  to  more  than 
twelve  dollars.  The  sincerity  of  the  people,  how- 
ever, and  their  regular  meetings  from  year  to  year, 
with  the  steady  gaze  upon  the  star  of  hope,  im- 
pressed me  greatly. 

The  evening  of  the  first  Christmas  that  I  spent 
in  the  Piney  Woods  strengthened  my  desire  to  cast 
my  lot  there.  Through  the  great  dark  woods  by 
the  light  of  a  pine  torch  we  were  taken  to  a  frolic. 
In  a  close  room,  filled  with  tobacco  smoke  and  reek- 
ing with  the  odor  of  whiskey,  a  crowd  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  laughing  and  joking,  jostled 
and  danced  to  the  music  of  an  old  guitar  until 
early  morning.  Occasionally  someone  would  step 
outside  and  with  a  succession  of  shots  satisfy  him- 
self as  to  how  quickly  he  could  pull  the  trigger. 
This  program  continued  for  a  week  at  one  place 
and  then  the  crowd  moved  on  to  the  next  cabin. 

I  cornered  the  men  in  one  room  when  they  came 
out  for  a  rest  and  talked  "  school,"  but  was  an- 
swered by  the  remark  that  their  convention  had 
been  trying  to  build  a  school  for  twenty  years,  but 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      55 

that  the  boll-weevil  was  on  hand,  so  "  it  wouldn't 
be  much  use  trying."  The  children  seemed  to 
enjoy  the  frolic  quite  as  much  as  the  older  people. 
They  swore  just  as  wickedly,  and  even  the  boys  and 
girls  nine  years  of  age  used  quantities  of  snuff  and 
tobacco.  Their  parents  thought  that  anything, 
even  liquor,  if  used  by  themselves,  was  all  right 
for  the  children;  so  it  was  only  necessary  to  ask 
"  Pa  "  for  what  was  wanted.  In  general,  however, 
I  found  the  moral  condition  of  the  people  much 
higher  than  I  had  expected  to  find  it.  Those  who 
respected  the  bonds  of  matrimony  were  greatly  in 
the  majority  and  looked  with  disfavor  upon  im- 
proper conduct  of  any  kind.  On  my  last  night  I 
sat  among  a  group  of  these  people  and  in  the  soft 
glow  of  a  great  pine-knot  fire  I  told  them  of  how 
the  people  farmed  and  lived  in  Iowa,  of  how  the 
boys  and  girls  were  educated,  how  they  celebrated 
Christmas ;  and  I  promised  that  later  I  would  come 
back  and  see  if  in  any  way  I  could  help  them. 

In  May,  after  the  closing  of  school  in  Hinds 
county,  I  set  out  again  for  the  Piney  Woods.  My 
two  years  in  the  South  had  earned  $490  and  my 
living.  I  had  been  able  to  make  the  $90  do  for 
expenses  and  had  invested  the  $400  in  land,  almost 
the  last  money  I  had  being  paid  on  this.  I  had 
enough  left  to  pay  my  way  to  Jackson,  and  there 


66  PINEY  WOODS 

I  pawned  my  watch  for  $2.50.  My  fare  to  Brax- 
ton  was  85  cents;  so  when  I  arrived  I  had  only 
$1.65  in  cash  with  which  to  begin  work.  The  hos- 
pitable people  were  glad  to  see  me,  however,  and 
made  me  welcome. 

I  went  to  work  immediately,  visiting  in  the 
homes,  in  the  churches,  in  neighborhood  meetings, 
and  under  the  trees  at  noontime — anywhere  I  could 
get  a  few  together.  I  saw  that  the  future  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  must  be  as  country-folk, 
and  that  to  make  them  a  better  country-folk  was 
the  task  of  their  helper.  It  was  clear  that  the  base 
of  operation  must  be  in  the  kitchen,  the  household, 
the  garden,  and  the  farm.  So  I  talked  diversified 
farming  and  around  the  firesides  at  night  we  fig- 
ured out  the  cost  of  raising  ten-cent  cotton  and 
buying  fifteen-cent  bacon  and  ninety-cent  corn 
from  the  meat-houses  and  corncribs  of  the  North 
I  showed  the  folly  of  saving  the  worst  land  for 
the  corn  crop,  from  which  they  must  derive  their 
living,  and  of  going  to  the  crib  in  the  spring  and 
picking  up  anything  left  for  seed  corn,  instead  of 
selecting  their  seed  in  the  field.  Better  stock  and 
poultry,  and  everything  pertaining  to  better  farm- 
ing, was  talked  of  and  illustrated  with  a  Wallace's 
Farmer,  Successful  Farming,  and  such  Southern 
farm  papers  as  I  could  get  hold  of.  Meanwhile  in 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      57 

the  homes  I  told  the  women  about  sanitary  cooking 
and  whitewash,  and  sometimes  I  applied  the  white- 
wash myself. 

In  this  way  I  traveled  all  over  Eankin  county 
and  a  part  of  Simpson,  sometimes  astride  a  mule, 
sometimes  in  an  ox-wagon,  but  more  often  afoot, 
sometimes  walking  eighteen  or  twenty  miles  a  day. 
I  had  been  in  one  place,  Taylor  Hill  community, 
only  a  few  days  when  I  found  it  necessary  late  one 
afternoon  to  see  a  man  who  lived  in  another  settle- 
ment. The  pleased-looking  old  man  of  whom  I 
asked  the  way  told  me  that  it  was  out  Big  Woods 
way  "  a  liT  piece  yon  side  de  creek."  I  could  not 
miss  it,  he  said.  "  Go  dis  way,  turn  on  dis  han' 
side,"  indicating  which  hand;  "keep  on  like  dat 
twell  you  come  to  de  forks  o'  de  road,  take  de  dis 
han'  form,"  again  indicating  which  hand  he  meant, 
"an'  follow  on  twell  you  come  to  de  creek.  Dar 
you'll  fin'  a  foot  bridge.  Cross  over.  Take  out 
thoo  de  woods  an'  keep  de  path  twell  you  come  to 
anothern  on  dis  han'  side;  turn  off  an'  follow  on 
twell  fus  thing  you  knows  you's  dar." 

Trying  to  remember  his  instructions  I  managed 
to  reach  the  creek.  Night  had  already  come 
among  the  deep  woods  all  around,  but  against  the 
dim  gleam  of  the  water  I  made  out  the  darker 
silhouette  of  the  "  bridge,"  once  a  conveniently  sit- 


58  PINEY  WOODS 

nated  tree  which  had  fallen  so  as  to  reach  from 
bank  to  bank.  The  bridge  looked  long,  and  oh! 
how  narrow;  and  the  water  beneath  it  looked  as 
though  it  might  be  mysteriously  and  dangerously 
deep,  full  of  hidden  depths  and  holes  and  quick- 
sands. Gladly  would  I  have  turned  back,  but  I 
did  not  dare,  for  while  my  directions  had  brought 
me  thus  far  forward  I  could  not  think  of  where 
they  might  lead  me  should  I  reverse  and  try  to 
work  them  backwards;  and  it  was  certain  that  I 
could  not  stay  where  I  was  all  night.  So  I  started 
across,  and  the  farther  I  went  the  narrower  seemed 
the  bridge,  until  when  I  was  about  halfway  the 
only  way  I  could  find  room  for  my  feet  was  by 
keeping  them  close  one  behind  the  other.  Once 
my  hand  touched  something  cold  and  clammy,  but 
whatever  it  was — frog  or  lizard  or  something  else 
- — so  rapidly  was  I  advancing  that  it  is  likely  the 
force  of  our  collision  stunned  it  for  life.  "  Take 
out  thoo  de  woods  an'  keep  de  path  twell  you  come 
to  anothern  on  dis  han'  side.  Take  dat  an'  follow 
on  twell  all  at  once  you's  dar."  After  crossing  the 
bridge  I  followed  or  thought  I  followed  the  direc- 
tions, but  after  quite  a  tramp  I  found  myself  at 
another  creek.  I  turned  back,  tramped  further  and 
came  to  another.  This  happened  again  and  again 
until  it  was  borne  upon  my  excited  mind  that  all 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      69 

these  were  not  different  creeks  but  just  one  creek, 
a  mysterious  one  indeed,  running  in  the  shape  of 
a  perfect  letter  0,  and  I  by  a  terrible  mistake  had 
got  on  the  island  in  its  center;  and  there  was  no 
way  out.  Panic  seized  me.  I  tore  through  brush 
and  tangle,  stumbling  and  panting,  not  knowing 
whither  I  fled.  Heavy  darkness  enfolded  me  and 
all  the  terrors  of  the  woods  surrounded  me.  The 
place  seemed  fairly  to  breathe  with  horrors,  and 
then  the  low  weird  sighing  night  wind  that  sprung 
up  and  the  chill  that  came  with  it  took  from  me 
the  last  vestige  of  reason  and  strength.  I  realized 
that  I  was  doomed  and  dropped  down  from  sheer 
exhaustion.  But  I  would  not  give  up.  I  started 
out  again ;  for  hours  I  hunted  a  way  out,  and  then 
I  dropped  down  exhausted  again,  for  how  long  a 
time  I  do  not  know.  And  then  I  heard  a  bird 
singing,  not  screeching  or  groaning,  but  singing. 
A  grayness  stole  through  the  woods;  almost  before 
I  knew  it  all  the  glory  of  dawn  was  in  the  sky. 
Vanishing  with  the"*darkness  went  all  my  fears  and 
confusion.  I  realized  that  the  creek  was  not  shaped 
like  an  O,  but  that  I  had  been  traveling  in  a  circle 
myself  and  had  been  coming  back  to  the  same  spot 
all  the  time. 

At  that  period  of  my  existence,  when  I  was  still 
not  long  out  of  college,  I  was  great  on  musing  and 


60  PINEY  WOODS 

moralizing,  and  just  a  few  days  later  I  used  this 
incident  in  a  speech  to  illustrate  how  my  people 
were  in  the  darkness  of  ignorance  with  all  its  super- 
stition and  fears,  and  how  they  needed  light,  and 
how  the  light  was  sure  to  come.  Another  time  I 
lost  my  way  and  wandered  into  a  part  of  Smith 
county  where  there  were  no  colored  people.  I 
walked  all  day  hoping  that  I  should  come  to  a 
settlement.  I  had  nothing  to  eat  with  me,  and  not 
knowing  what  fate  might  overtake  a  strange  Negro 
if  he  stopped  to  ask  questions  I  journeyed  on  drink- 
ing from  the  hrooks  and  eating  such  berries  as  I 
could  find  in  the  woods.  It  was  long  after  dark 
before  I  saw  the  first  cabin  in  a  colored  settlement, 
the  firelight  shining  between  the  cracks  in  the  logs. 
To  my  "Hello"  the  familiar  "Who  dat?"  told 
me  that  I  had  reached  a  haven  of  rest,  and  that 
the  next  night  I  should  have  those  about  me  to  tell 
about  the  high  school  that  they  were  to  help 
build. 

Thus  I  studied  the  people  and  the  country,  and 
the  entire  summer  was  spent  in  this  way.  In  the 
fall  I  found  that  I  was  no  better  off  financially 
than  when  I  first  entered  the  Piney  Woods.  On 
Sundays  at  their  meetings  the  people  would  take 
up  an  after  collection  for  the  "  Fesser  " — generally 
eighty  or  ninety  cents,  but  often  only  fifteen  or 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      61 

twenty  cents,  and  with  this  I  met  the  few  current 
expenses  I  had. 

About  the  first  of  October,  having  covered  con- 
siderable territory  and  worn  out  the  only  shoes  and 
clothing  I  had,  I  found  myself  back  at  Braxton, 
determined  to  begin  the  operation  of  a  school. 
Although  I  was  full  of  enthusiasm  and  had  stirred 
up  some  degree  of  interest  among  both  the  white 
and  the  colored  people,  I  realized  the  difficulty  of 
making  a  start;  but  I  had  burned  my  bridges  be- 
hind me  and  was  determined  to  do  or  be  found 
trying. 

It  had  been  the  poorest  crop  season  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  country,  with  rain,  rain,  rain.  The 
merchants  had  put  out  money  for  provisions  and 
clothing  for  the  colored  people,  as  is  the  custom 
in  the  South,  and  it  looked  as  if  there  would  be 
no  cotton  with  which  to  pay  because  of  the  con- 
tinuous rains.  I  talked  the  matter  over  with  Mr. 
Mangum,  the  cashier  of  the  Braxton  Bank,  who 
is  now  our  treasurer,  and  in  his  kindly,  sympa- 
thetic way  he  said,  "  Well,  Jones,  the  outlook  is 
rather  gloomy;  it  looks  like  the  rain  has  the  best 
of  us;  my  money's  out,  the  darkies  are  all  blue, 
and  I'm  blue,  so  that  we're  about  one  color;  but 
go  ahead  and  do  what  you  can  and  I'll  help  you  a 
little  later."  Another  local  white  man,  Mr.  J.  R. 


62  PINEY  WOODS 

Webster,  I  found  at  his  mill  checking  up  lumber. 
He  said  that  an  industrial  school  for  the  colored 
people  was  a  fine  thing  and  that  he  would  give 
some  lumber  when  it  got  started.  He  also  allowed 
me  the  use  of  his  typewriter. 

I  had  some  interesting  experiences  with  the  local 
Church  Association,  Sunday  School  Convention, 
and  such  organizations.  For  the  meetings  of  these 
bodies  the  people  sometimes  drive  forty  or  fifty 
miles,  coming  in  wagons  or  buggies  or  on  mules 
to  the  great  event  of  the  year.  Those  who  can  not 
find  places  to  stay  near  the  church  camp  out  in  the 
open.  There  are  tables  and  counters  and  vendors 
out  under  the  trees,  where  are  sold  hot  fish, 
oranges,  apples,  soda  water,  crackers,  and  anything 
else  the  appetite  might  call  for.  In  the  church  and 
around  the  doors  and  windows  are  the  older  people. 
Next  is  a  circle  of  young  people  walking  to  and 
fro.  It  is  their  great  social  time  of  the  year; 
every  girl  must  have  a  new  calico  dress  for  the  oc- 
casion and  every  boy  a  new  suit,  and  many  a  court- 
ship that  ends  in  marriage  begins  at  the  "  Associa- 
tion." On  the  edge  of  the  crowd  are  the  tables 
and  stands,  while  surrounding  all  is  the  circle  of 
wagons  and  buggies  and  mules.  The  buggies  fur- 
nish convenient  places  for  the  young  people  to  sit 
and  court.  Beyond  all  else  are  the  camp  followers, 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      63 

horse  traders  and  the  fellows  with  a  little  "  blind 
tiger  "  whiskey.  It  seems  impossible  to  keep  them 
away,  and  often  there  are  as  many  white  men  as 
colored  in  this  gang. 

During  the  month  of  August  the  Spring  Hill 
Association  was  to  have  its  annual  meeting,  each 
church  being  represented  by  two  delegates  and 
four  dollars  in  money,  with  instructions  as  to  the 
division  of  this  money  between  the  funds  for  Edu- 
cation, Home  Missions,  Foreign  Missions,  and 
Superannuated  Ministers.  My  friends  were  all  in 
a  great  state  of  preparation  for  the  gathering,  and 
several  advised  that  I  should  go  by  all  means.  It 
was  a  hot,  dusty  August  day  when  we  started  upon 
our  twenty-mile  journey  over  a  narrow,  rugged 
road,  with  roots  and  stumps  and  gullies  and 
washed-out  places  at  frequent  intervals.  I  did  not 
know  that  the  young  man  with  me  had  taken  the 
old  plug  we  were  driving  right  off  the  pasture,  that 
he  had  hitched  him  up  without  sufficient  feed 
or  water,  or  that  he  was  old.  At  any  rate 
his  debilitated  condition  brought  on  colic  and 
he  died  the  day  after  we  arrived  at  the 
Association.  This  was  only  the  beginning  of 
trouble.  The  members  of  the  Association  could 
not  exactly  understand  my  mission  among  them, 
and  those  who  were  at  the  head  of  affairs  were  as 


W  PINEY  WOODS 

jealous  of  their  positions  as  if  they  had  been  rulers 
of  principalities.  They  did  not  know  but  that  I 
was  a  preacher  in  disguise,  they  did  not  permit  me 
to  come  before  the  body  or  take  any  part  in  the 
proceedings,  and  I  found  myself  completely 
"  frozen  out "  on  a  sizzling  August  day.  When 
the  meeting  was  over  and  the  tents  were  being 
taken  down  and  the  stands  knocked  to  pieces,  every- 
body seemed  in  a  hurry  to  leave.  Buggies  and 
wagons  were  soon  hitched  up  and  the  people 
climbed  in  and  rumbled  off  down  the  roads  in 
clouds  of  dust  but  not  one  seemed  going  in  my 
direction.  Wearily  I  turned  back  toward  my  set- 
tlement with  a  twenty-mile  walk  before  me.  When 
I  arrived  I  found  that  the  news  of  the  death  of  the 
old  horse  was  already  there.  The  young  man  had 
not  returned  with  me.  Not  relishing  the  idea  of 
facing  his  people  without  the  horse,  he  had  decided 
to  visit  a  few  days  before  returning,  so  that  the 
death  of  old  Doc  was  entirely  upon  my  own  shoul- 
ders although  I  was  only  a  guest  and  had  not  in 
any  way  assumed  the  responsibility  of  driving  the 
horse.  My  stock  dropped  to  zero,  things  were  dark 
and  ominious,  and  failure  stared  me  in  the  face. 
Then  I  remembered  hearing  eome  of  my  Univer- 
sity teachers  tell  about  Mark  Twain  and  Walter 
Scott,  who  had  been  connected  with  companies  that 


.      PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      65 

failed  and  who  while  they  were  not  under  any  re- 
sponsibility from  a  purely  business  standpoint  to 
stand  for  the  losses  of  the  others  in  the  company, 
nevertheless  because  of  the  moral  consideration 
paid  back  every  dollar  their  defunct  companies 
owed.  I  felt  I  should  do  the  same,  for  I  did  not 
want  to  fail  in  my  object  of  educating  these  people. 
I  did  not  want  to  leave  with  this  odium  upon  me 
and  I  certainly  would  not  climb  to  success  over  the 
misfortune  of  the  lowliest  in  the  Black  Belt.  As 
the  owner  and  I  could  not  agree  on  the  value  of 
the  plug,  we  each  selected  a  man,  and  the  two 
selected  a  third  who  would  act  with  them  as  a  com- 
mittee to  fix  the  value  of  the  animal.  The  verdict 
was  for  $125,  which  amount  was  really  $75  more 
than  the  horse  was  worth.  I  said  I  would  pay 
the  sum  with  the  first  money  I  could  earn.  My 
good  friend,  Mr.  Taylor,  however,  who  had  been 
my  nominee,  came  to  the  rescue  and  loaned  the 
money  upon  my  word,  without  security  of  any 
kind.  My  stock  again  rose  rapidly,  and  I  have 
never  regretted  the  decision  to  do  more  than  I  was 
morally  responsible  for.  I  had  helped  to  build  up 
my  credit  not  only  in  Braxton,  but  in  Jackson  as 
well;  and  some  of  the  rery  people  who  looked 
askance  now  came  around  and  said  that  I  had  been 
overcharged.  Since  then  the  owner  of  the  horse 


66  PINEY  WOODS 

has  moved  to  Louisiana,  and  for  two  years  he  sent 
his  youngest  son  back  to  the  Piney  Woods  School. 
In  1919  the  young  man  was  graduated  as  the  vale- 
dictorian of  his  class,  and  he  married  one  of  the 
graduates  of  1918. 

Another  organization  in  the  county  known  as  the 
St.  John's  Semi-Annual  Convention,  the  president 
of  which  had  first  invited  me  down,  was  my  next 
hope  of  getting  a  start.  This  would  not  budge. 
The  president  was  accused  of  bringing  down  a 
"  furiner "  to  take  away  their  convention  from 
them,  and  a  new  president  was  elected.  The  treas- 
urer was  opposed  to  any  forward  movement  be- 
cause he  had  used  up  the  $75  or  $80  in  the  treas- 
ury and  was  not  in  a  position  to  replace  this.  Still 
another  of  the  leaders  had  some  boys  who  had  been 
sent  away  to  school  and  who  were  now  rural  teach- 
ers, and  he  was  not  willing  to  boost  anything  of 
which  they  could  not  be  the  head.  In  general  the 
opinion  was,  "  We  have  been  laboring  for  twenty 
years  to  build  a  high  school,  and  if  we  go  ahead 
and  let  Fesser  Jones  build  one  under  our  authority 
he'll  get  the  praise."  A  little  later  I  attended  a 
smaller  convention.  Here  one  of  the  leading  lights 
remarked,  "  I  wish  that  feller  'ud  go  on  away  from 
here;  he's  got  too  much  sense.  I  know  he'd  never 
come  away  down  here  with  his  sense  fer  any  good 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SK?       67 

to  us."  It  must  be  remembered  that  I  had  friends 
in  all  of  these  meetings  who  were  willing  to  do 
for  me  anything  they  could,  but  the  moderators 
and  other  officers  had  a  sort  of  interlocking  di- 
rectorate and  they  did  not  want  it  disturbed,  school 
or  no  school.  The  more  I  thought  of  the  matter 
the  more  certain  was  I  that  I  ought  to  be  able  to 
do  something  for  these  people  out  in  the  great 
Piney  Woods,  and  I  finally  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  start  must  be  made  in  some  other  way. 
I  had  been  accustomed  to  go  to  a  spring  on  an  old 
farm  about  two  miles  from  where  I  was  staying 
to  read  and  write  under  a  large  cedar  tree.  One 
afternoon  while  I  was  at  this  place  day-dreaming 
there  came  to  my  mind  the  saying  that  Mark 
Hopkins  on  one  end  of  a  log  and  a  student  on  the 
other  would  constitute  a  university,  and  I  thought 
that  surely  I  ought  to  be  able  to  teach  these  illiter- 
ate boys  and  girls  without  the  formality  of  build- 
ings and  desks  and  blackboards.  So  the  inspiration 
came  to  me  to  open  school  under  the  old  cedar  tree, 
in  God's  out-of-doors,  with  His  vast  blue  dome  for 
our  schoolhouse,  and  I  set  out  to  notify  the  farmers 
around  that  school  would  open  on  the  next  Mon- 
day morning  at  the  cedar  tree  on  the  old  Mordecai 
Harris  place. 

Many  of  them  had  already  laughed  at  me  for 


68  PINEY  WOODS 

sitting  around  the  old  place  and  now  they  laughed 
anew.  The  very  idea  of  starting  a  high  school 
under  a  tree — impossible!  This  only  strengthened 
my  determination,  however.  On  Monday  morning 
three  hoys  met  me,  and  a  few  of  the  old  brethren. 
We  assembled  under  the  tree  on  some  pine  logs, 
and  after  singing  "  Praise  God  from  whom  all 
blessings  flow,"  reading  lessons  from  the  Bible,  and 
offering  prayer,  declared  school  open. 

The  next  day  I  had  a  few  more  students,  and 
the  number  grew  until  there  were  some  twenty- 
nine.  Each  new  addition  meant  more  pine  logs  for 
seats.  After  a  few  weeks  two  of  the  students,  a 
young  man  and  a  young  woman  whom  I  had  taught 
before  coming  to  the  Piney  Woods,  joined  me,  and 
several  more  insisted  upon  coming  though  I  had 
no  place  for  them  to  stay.  The  young  man  was  a 
very  good  carpenter  and  the  young  woman  fairly 
well  advanced  in  her  studies.  They  became  my 
efficient  assistants.  It  was  now  November  and  the 
days  were  a  little  chilly.  We  would  each  build 
a  bonfire  and  roll  our  logs  around  and  thus  hear 
the  classes.  In  the  meantime  the  recess  period  was 
spent  in  hewing  out  benches.  Near  by  our  open-air 
school  was  an  old  tumble-down  cabin  in  which  a 
drove  of  sheep  took  shelter.  It  was  also  inhabited 
by  lizards,  snakes,  and  owls,  and  was  almost  hid- 


(Above)  "Farmers'  Conference."  E.  R.  Harlan,  Curator  of  Iowa 
Historical  Society,  Speaker  of  the  Day,  in  Front  Line. 

(Below)  ''Bringing  the  North  and  South  Together."  Domestic 
Science  Department  serves  a  dinner  at  a  Farmers'  Conference  for 
northern  and  southern  white  friends  and  Trustees.  At  head  of  table 
on  left:  Major  R.  W.  Millsaps,  Miss.;  on  right:  Professor  P.  G. 
Holden  of  Iowa.  To  right  of  Professor  Holden:  Captain  Asa 
Turner  ai<<1  Hon.  W.  P.  Mangum  of  Miss,  on  left  front  end. 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      69 

den  by  the  weeds  that  had  grown  up  around  it.  I 
made  some  inquiries  and  found  that  it,  as  well  as 
the  land  we  were  on,  belonged  to  an  aged  colored 
man  by  the  name  of  Taylor,  who  the  people  said 
was  the  only  one  among  them  who  could  do  any- 
thing, but  who  was  mean  and  stingy  so  that  it 
would  be  useless  to  see  him.  I  asked  where  he 
lived  and  started  out  to  find  him,  and  I  met  him 
out  in  a  field  plowing  with  an  old  mule.  I  hailed 
him  and  introduced  myself.  He  said  that  he  had 
heard  of  me,  that  it  looked  as  though  I  meant  busi- 
ness, and  that  if  I  would  wait  a  few  minutes  he 
would  "  take  out "  and  talk.  This  I  did,  and  then 
we  went  to  his  cabin.  He  explained  that  he  had 
let  everything  run  down  as  he  was  planning  to 
leave  the  country  and  go  West,  and  did  not  want 
to  leave  anything  behind.  He  had  had  interesting 
experiences.  He  had  gone  with  Major  Palmer 
after  the  war  to  Rockford,  111.,  and  had  obtained 
three  terms  of  schooling  at  the  little  red  school' 
house  near  Cherry  Valley,  and  later  had  lived  in 
Keokuk,  Iowa,  where  he  worked  as  a  barber.  Then 
he  had  returned  to  his  old  state  of  Mississippi  and 
by  virtue  of  the  education  he  had  received  had  been 
able  to  buy  several  hundred  acres  of  land  and  save 
a  little  money.  We  talked  until  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  and  he  decided  to  give  forty  acres  of 


70  PINEY  WOODS 

land  and  fifty  dollars  in  money  toward  the  sub- 
stantial beginning  of  the  school.  The  next  day  we 
went  down  and  looked  over  the  forty  acres,  and  the 
following  Saturday  he  went  to  town  and  deeded 
the  property  to  the  trustees  of  the  Piney  Woods 
Industrial  School  and  gave  a  check  for  fifty 
dollars. 

Here  was  a  man  different  from  any  colored  man 
I  had  yet  met  in  the  Piney  Woods.  The  following 
Sunday  he  and  I  visited  the  local  church  to  an- 
nounce the  gift  and  to  see  what  we  could  do  to  stir 
up  some  enthusiasm.  After  the  meeting,  being 
given  an  opportunity  to  speak,  I  announced  the 
great  gift  of  Mr.  Taylor,  whereupon  one  of  the 
deacons  jumped  up  and  said,  "  I  ain't  goin'  to  have 
nothin'  to  do  with  it.  There's  some  trick  about  it ; 
Taylor  never  would  have  done  that  if  it  wasn't  a 
trick."  This  outburst  considerably  dampened  the 
feeling.  Mr.  Taylor  had  been  so  good  and  kind  to 
me,  however,  that  my  fighting  blood  had  been 
aroused,  and  I  declared  that  he  and  I  were  more 
determined  than  ever  to  build  a  school  and  that  we 
intended  to  proceed  with  the  work  even  if  we  had 
to  go  forward  alone.  Mr.  Taylor  then  stood  up 
and  emphasized  what  I  had  said,  and  the  meeting 
closed  in  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm. 

Next  day  I  rode  around  through  the  settlement 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      71 

to  find  out  what  each  would  do.  Some  pledged  a 
little  money,  the  highest  amount  being  the  $15  of 
Hector  McClaurin,  one  of  the  most  substantial 
farmers.  Others  said  they  would  help  haul  the 
lumber,  some  said  they  would  help  in  the  building, 
while  still  others  said  they  would  help  "  rive  out 
de  bods."  I  did  not  know  just  what  that  had  to 
do  with  building  a  school  but  thought  if  it  would 
help  any  I  should  be  glad  to  see  it  done. 

I  was  now  happier  than  I  had  ever  been  before 
in  my  life.  We  set  to  work,  floored  the  old  cabin, 
put  a  dirt  and  stick  chimney  at  each  end,  and 
whitewashed  it  inside  and  outside.  The  result  was 
that  the  people  said  it  looked  better  than  it  had 
ever  looked  before  in  the  half-century  of  its  exist- 
ence. In  one  side  the  young  man,  Yancy,  and 
myself  fixed  our  living  quarters,  and  the  other  side 
became  the  schoolhouse.  It  was  seven  rooms  in 
one,  serving  as  chapel,  study  hall,  recitation  room, 
office,  sewing  room,  carpenter  shop  and  basket- 
making  shop  as  occasion  required. 

One  day  a  friend,  Tom  Dixon,  came  to  me  and 
said,  "  Mr.  Jones,  we  are  due  a  little  schooling 
from  the  county,  and  if  you  could  get  that  you 
would  have  a  little  something  to  help  you."  I 
made  inquiry  and  found  that  the  county  had  been 
accustomed  to  granting  a  three  or  four  months 


72  PINEY  WOODS 

school,  the  length  of  the  term  and  the  salary  (gen- 
erally $15  or  $18  a  month)  being  dependent  upon 
the  pleasure  of  the  superintendent.  To  get  charge 
of  the  school  would  require  two  things,  permission 
from  the  local  trustees  and  then  from  the  super- 
intendent. For  several  days  I  wrestled  with  the 
three  trustees;  one  evening  one  would  assent  and 
as  soon  as  I  left  him  he  changed  his  mind.  Said 
one:  "  Fesser,  suppose  de  projuct  youse  gitting  up 
busts;  den  we'll  be  widout  our  school  case  it'll  be 
part  of  youall's  projuct,  an'  I'll  be  ter  blame  by 
de  peoples."  The  next  morning  I  once  more  had 
this  one  in  the  mood  to  go,  but  I  was  careful  not 
to  leave  him  again.  We  hitched  up  a  mule  and 
started  by  the  home  of  one  of  the  other  men.  This 
man  we  had  to  "  get  fixed  "  again ;  then  it  took 
him  another  hour  to  hitch  up  his  mule  and  tie  the 
harness  together.  At  last,  however,  we  were  off  to 
Brandon,  seventeen  miles  away.  We  arrived  just 
as  the  board  was  about  to  convene,  and  we  happily 
succeeded  in  our  errand. 

We  next  called  a  great  meeting  of  the  people. 
Some  eleven  hundred  came  afoot,  on  horseback, 
in  ox-wagons  and  vehicles  of  every  description. 
Among  them  were  the  best  white  people  from  Brax- 
ton,  three  miles  away.  I  remember  Hon.  R.  F. 
Everett,  president  of  the  Braxton  Bank,  and  some 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      73 

twenty-five  others.  The  result  of  the  meeting  was 
a  subscription  list  headed  by  the  $50  of  the  ex- 
slave,  Taylor,  liberal  gifts  from  the  white  friends, 
and  the  mites  of  the  farmer  folk,  some  of  whom 
were  able  to  give  only  a  few  pennies.  Altogether 
we  had  enough  to  start  a  building.  Then  followed 
gifts  of  all  sorts.  Mr.  Webster  gave  the  lumber 
promised  and  we  set  a  day  to  begin  work;  one 
good  old  woman  brought  two  geese  across  the  coun- 
try. Such  was  the  spirit  in  which  the  little  school 
in  the  Piney  Woods  was  started. 

On  the  appointed  day,  after  Scripture  reading 
and  prayer,  some  started  to  haul  lumber  while 
others  got  the  ground  ready  for  the  foundation. 
In  my  overalls  I  helped  swing  the  axes  and  pull 
the  crosscut  saw  that  felled  the  first  tree.  From 
day  to  day  the  farmers'  wives  would  come  at  noon 
and  bring  baskets  of  food,  and  we  would  all  rest 
in  the  shade  of  the  trees  until  time  to  go  back  to 
work.  During  the  rest  period  I  would  conduct  a 
farmers'  experience  meeting.  At  night,  after  the 
others  had  gone  back  to  their  homes,  Yancy  and  I 
would  continue  to  work  until  dark.  Then  we  would 
go  to  our  cabin  and  prepare  supper. 

We  progressed  rapidly  with  the  building,  and 
soon  had  the  framing  up  and  the  weather-boarding 
on.  Then  one  night  a  terrible  gulf-storm  blew 


74  PINEY  WOODS 

across  the  state,  uprooting  trees,  destroying  houses 
and  livestock,  and  leaving  death  and  destruction  in 
its  wake.  As  we  lay  on  our  cots  in  the  old  cabin, 
praying  that  our  lives  might  be  saved,  we  could 
hear  the  snapping  of  the  gigantic  pines  and  the 
crashing  of  timber  and  buildings  blown  about  the 
country.  The  flashes  of  lightning  were  dazzling 
and  the  thunder  was  deafening,  and  the  cabin 
groaned  and  trembled  beneath  the  shock  of  the 
trees  and  timber  blown  against  it.  When  we  saw 
the  wreckage  the  next  morning  the  fact  that  we 
were  alive  and  the  cabin  still  standing  was  to  me 
a  manifestation  of  the  power  of  prayer.  The  top 
of  our  cedar  tree  had  been  blown  off  and  every- 
where the  pines  were  in  a  broken  tangle,  and  our 
building,  while  not  blown  down,  was  off  its  founda- 
tion and  almost  wrecked. 

This  misfortune  nearly  disheartened  me.  It  was 
the  most  discouraging  thing  that  had  yet  come  into 
my  life.  I  walked  around  the  building  several 
times  trying  to  realize  whether  I  was  awake  or 
dreaming.  It  all  proved  to  be  no  dream;  so  we 
borrowed  some  jacks  from  the  mills  and  railroad 
company  and  set  to  work  to  put  the  whole  back  in 
shape.  After  the  farmers  had  straightened  up 
their  fences  they  flocked  to  help  us;  even  the 
•women  came  and  helped  to  clear  away  the  debris. 


(Top)     Mother's  Club,  Organized  by  Mrs.  Jones. 

(Below)  "Clearing  the  Land"  Principal  Jones  leading  his  school  boys  in 
felling  trees  for  the  first  building.  All  buildings  even  the  late  brick  ones  are 
constructed  by  students. 


PINE-KNOTS  AND  THE  BLUE  SKY      75 

After  days  of  toil  and  sleepless  nights  we  finally 
succeeded  in  getting  the  building  together  and  back 
on  its  original  foundation,  and  everyone  declared 
that  it  looked  as  well  as  before,  if  not  better.  We 
worked  on  and  finally  were  able  to  move  into  our 
new  building,  which  was  dedicated  and  named 
"  Taylor  Hall,"  in  honor  of  the  man  who  had  given 
the  first  money  toward  its  erection.  The  old  cabin 
now  served  only  for  sleeping  quarters  and  the 
office. 

We  closed  the  year  free  from  debt  and  had  an 
average  of  eighty-five  students.  We  had  taught 
common  English  branches  and  sewing,  basketry, 
broom-making  and  woodwork.  There  was  also  a 
beginning  in  flower  gardening.  Our  closing  exer- 
cises consisted  of  essays  on  housekeeping,  cooking, 
sewing,  gardening,  and  manual  training. 

There  was  no  money  for  salaries  and  what  dona- 
tions we  could  get  were  used  for  the  building  up 
of  the  school.  After  school  was  out  I  succeeded  in 
getting  enough  money  together  to  send  out  a  thou- 
sand circular  letters.  From  all  of  them  I  received 
but  one  response.  It  was  as  follows:  "Although 
I  am  helping  all  of  the  schools  I  can  and  do  not 
want  to  take  on  any  new  obligations,  your  litera- 
ture and  story  appeals  to  me  in  a  special  way.  En- 
closed, etc. — Emily  Howland."  This  contribution 


76  PINEY  WOODS 

I  felt  was  providential  for  it  strengthened  our 
faith  that  friends  would  come  to  our  rescue  and 
that  we  only  needed  to  stay  on  the  firing  line.  Dur- 
ing the  vacation  we  worked  on,  trying  to  make  a 
little  crop  with  our  hands,  for  we  had  not  a  single 
animal  to  use  for  working  the  soil.  Again  we  sent 
out  a  thousand  circular  letters,  this  time  mostly 
to  Iowa.  Again  among  the  thousand  we  found 
only  one  response.  We  opened  a  letter  one  morn- 
ing and  found  in  it  a  little  pink  check  and  these 
words :  "  I  like  what  you  are  doing  in  your  corner 
of  the  vineyard.  May  the  Lord  give  you  the  de- 
sire of  your  heart.  Enclosed,  etc. — Asa  Turner." 
Since  then  we  have  heard  from  this  friend  many 
times  and  have  found  him  the  kindest,  most  lov- 
able man  in  all  the  world.  Like  the  Master  before 
him  he  goes  about  the  world  doing  good.  But  who 
that  knows  anything  about  the  history  of  Iowa  does 
not  know  of  Father  Turner? 


IV 
LOG  CABIN  DAYS 

IA,M  not  sure  just  what  we  should  call  the  first 
stage   of   the   growth   of   the   Piney   Woods 
School,  but  I  do  know  that  the  second  stage 
might  well  be  termed  "  Log  Cabin  Days." 

When  we  had  finished  our  first  year  of  work  it 
was  more  than  ever  necessary  for  us  to  try  to  place 
our  effort  before  the  public.  I  shall  never  forget 
my  first  days  in  Keokuk,  where  I  was  soliciting  for 
the  first  time  in  my  life.  I  arrived  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  and  on  my  way  up  from  the  depot  I 
passed  a  broom  factory.  After  I  deposited  my 
luggage  at  my  rooming-place  I  returned  to  this 
factory  to  see  what  I  could  learn  in  the  course  of 
the  afternoon  about  making  brooms.  I  also  learned 
that  a  set  of  broom  machinery  was  not  in  use  and 
would  be  sold  reasonably.  This  I  considered  for- 
tunate, for  I  wanted  to  install  broom-making  and 
I  should  now  have  something  tangible  to  work  for. 
On  Sunday  I  visited  several  churches.  At  one  I 

was  allowed  to  tell  my  story  before  a  large  Bible 

77 


78  PINEY  WOODS 

class  though  no  collection  was  permitted.  After 
the  class  was  dismissed,  however,  one  man  who  was 
interested  came  around  and  slipped  a  dollar  into 
my  hand  and  gave  me  the  names  of  some  others 
upon  whom  I  might  call  the  next  day.  The  next 
.morning  I  went  first  to  see  Mr.  Lee  Hammill, 
whom  I  was  told  that  I  must  by  all  means  visit 
if  I  expected  to  have  any  luck  in  Keokuk.  I 
found  him  busy  at  his  desk  in  the  midst  of  a  dozen 
busy  clerks.  He  gave  me  a  sympathetic  hearing, 
remembered  "  Uncle  Ed  Taylor,"  who  had  bar- 
bered  there  with  an  old  Frenchman,  and  told  me 
that  he  had  always  felt  compassion  for  the  colored 
people  and  was  pleased  to  help,  but  that  I  must 
first  see  a  Mr.  Huiskamp  and  whatever  this  man 
did  he  would  do  also.  I  spent  the  rest  of  the  day 
trying  to  find  Mr.  Huiskamp  and  finally  saw  him 
in  his  factory.  He  listened  to  me  patiently  and 
then  said  that  he  had  about  "  given  out,"  and  that 
he  now  felt  that  for  a  while  it  was  his  first  duty 
to  provide  for  his  family.  That  evening  I  went 
supperless  to  bed,  but  I  could  not  rest.  At  last  I 
set  my  teeth  and  with  a  new  determination  got  up 
and  dressed,  and  then  I  went  out  and  looked  up 
the  location  of  Mr.  Huiskamp's  residence.  The 
door  was  opened  by  the  gentleman  himself  with  a 
paper  in  his  hand.  When  he  saw  who  I  was  and 


LOG  CABIN  DAYS  79 

I  had  begun  talking  about  the  school  he  said,  "  But 
I  told  you  to-day  that  I  could  not  do  anything  just 
now."  I  do  not  know  what  I  said,  or  whether  it 
was  the  haunting,  determined  look  I  had,  but  at 
last  he  told  me  to  come  back  to  his  office  the  next 
day  and  he  would  do  something.  The  next  day  I 
was  up  and  at  it  again.  I  met  another  good  friend 
in  the  person  of  Mr.  G.  Walter  Barr,  who  encour- 
aged me  to  go  forward  by  declaring  that  I  could 
not  fail  if  I  persisted.  It  took  me  nearly  a  week 
to  raise  the  $35  to  purchase  the  broom-making 
machinery  which  soon  afterwards  was  on  its  way 
to  the  Piney  Woods.  The  friendship  thus  formed 
for  the  school  by  Mr.  Hammill  and  Mr.  Barr  has 
continued  to  grow  and  we  have  had  the  pleasure  of 
thanking  them  many  times  for  favors  received. 

From  Keokuk  I  journeyed  on  to  Des  Moines, 
where  my  friend  and  fellow  alumnus,  Attorney  S. 
Joe  Brown,  had  arranged  a  meeting  for  me  in  the 
church  of  Dr.  Howland  Hanson,  one  of  the  largest 
in  the  city.  Very  few  attended,  but  I  raised  a 
little  money,  secured  some  pledges,  and,  best  of  all, 
succeeded  in  getting  my  friend  Brown  to  tell  me 
of  the  mistakes  I  made.  He  emphasized  the  fact 
that  the  best  part  of  my  lecture  was  my  own  per- 
sonal story  of  my  work,  and  I  have  since  found 
that  he  was  entirely  correct.  While  in  Des  Moinefl 


80  PINEY  WOODS 

I  also  met  a  young  man,  Louis  Watson,  who  had 
attended  the  high  school,  but  who  had  not  been  able 
to  find  anything  other  than  the  work  of  a  porter 
to  do.  He  was  happy  to  cast  his  lot  with  us,  and 
without  a  promise  of  salary  began  preparations  to 
leave,  despite  the  unfavorable  comment  of  friends 
concerning  the  South. 

We  opened  in  the  fall  with  five  teachers.  The 
young  man  who  had  been  with  us  the  first  term 
had  married  during  the  summer  and  he  brought 
his  wife.  She  was  to  be  a  teacher  for  the  extension 
work  through  the  co-operation  of  the  Anna  T. 
Jeanes  Fund.  We  enrolled  over  a  hundred  stu- 
dents and  added  a  training  kitchen  for  the  girls. 
The  money  sent  by  Miss  Howland  we  applied 
toward  a  little  hand  press  and  some  type,  and  at 
the  suggestion  of  this  kind  lady  we  began  to  print 
a  little  paper  which  we  called  The  Pine  Torch. 
Mr.  Watson  taught  in  the  Academic  Department 
and  was  also  our  official  bookkeeper.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  faithful  and  conscientious  young  men 
it  has  ever  been  my  good  fortune  to  know.  Often 
after  teaching  all  day  he  would  be  bending  over 
the  books  until  after  midnight.  While  we  did  not 
have  a  great  deal  of  money  to  handle,  we  kept  the 
work  time  of  the  students  and  also  a  careful  record 
of  their  marks. 


LOG  CABIN  DAYS  81 

As  Christinas  time  approached  and  the  pitifully 
poor  condition  of  the  people  began  to  impress  itself 
upon  Watson,  he  began  to  make  plans  for  a  real 
Christmas,  such  as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  see 
the  children  enjoy  in  the  North.  He  sent  to  his. 
mother  for  little  candles  and  other  decorations  for 
a  tree,  and  he  set  about  making  little  Christmas 
boxes  out  of  pasteboard  and  tissue  paper,  and 
painting  motto  cards  for  each  of  our  students  and 
for  many  of  their  parents.  Time  after  time  I  re- 
monstrated with  him  for  working  so  steadily  and 
keeping  indoors  so  much,  but  he  would  only  smile 
and  answer  that  he  wanted  to  let  these  poor  boys 
and  girls  have  a  real  Christmas  for  once  in  their 
lives,  even  if  it  was  the  last  thing  he  ever  did.  So 
he  worked  on  until  late  in  the  night,  doing  his 
regular  work  and  painting  the  cards,  and  he  was 
an  excellent  artist;  and  in  the  meantime  the  teach- 
ers prepared  for  a  concert.  The  custom  had  been 
to  have  a  great  frolic  to  the  accompaniment  of  an 
old  guitar,  with  plenty  to  drink,  fireworks  and  the 
shooting  of  pistols.  This  time  we  had  a  sermon. 
in  the  afternoon,  a  sacred  concert  at  night,  and  a 
Christmas  tree  gaily  decorated  and  brilliant  with 
dozens  of  candles.  This  was  the  first  real  Christ- 
mas the  Piney  Woods  folk  had  ever  witnessed,  and 
how  they  enjoyed  it,  young  and  old!  Not  a  gun. 


82  PINEY  WOODS 

was  fired,  not  an  unpleasant  incident  marred  the 
blessed  holiday ;  and  how  the  eyes  of  the  little  boys 
and  girls  sparkled  as  they  feasted  upon  the  tree 
and  as  the  names  of  the  different  ones  were  called 
for  the  boxes  of  nuts  and  candy!  But  alas  for 
poor  Watson!  He  had  overworked  himself,  and 
the  overwork,  together  with  the  poor  food — for  we 
subsisted  mostly  on  cowpeas  and  cornbread — had 
taken  all  his  strength.  Within  two  weeks  after 
Christmas,  with  a  smile  on  his  face,  he  went  out, 
and  the  saddest  thing  I  have  ever  had  to  do  in 
life  was  to  wire  his  mother  about  the  return  of 
her  boy.  His  life  was  an  inspiration  for  all  of  us, 
a  benediction  upon  our  work.  We  dedicated  our- 
selves anew  to  the  unfinished  task  that  stretched 
before  us  and  zealously  turned  again  toward 
the  sun. 

Each  day  the  students  had  worked  half  a  day 
and  gone  to  school  half  a  day,  and  in  this  way  we 
had  cleared  up  a  few  acres  of  land,  but  we  needed 
something  to  help  with  the  plowing.  A  mule 
would  cost  $150,  and  the  most  we  could  raise  was 
$20 ;  so  we  bought  a  donkey  that  had  been  trained 
to  plow,  and  though  it  was  a  rather  slow  proposi- 
tion we  set  out  to  make  a  little  crop.  One  day 
Mr.  Taylor,  returning  from  a  trip  to  Jackson,  told 
us  about  an  old-style  piano  that  he  had  seen  for 


LOG  CABIN  DAYS  83 

sale  at  $30.  This  was  just  $30  more  than  we  had 
and  the  spring  is  a  poor  time  for  raising  money  in 
the  South.  But  we  needed  music,  and  this  piano 
was  of  just  the  kind  and  price  for  us.  Finally  one 
of  our  enthusiastic  farmers,  Amon  Gipson,  came 
to  our  rescue.  He  said  he  had  been  holding  a  bale 
of  cotton  and  that  he  would  sell  it  and  go  and  get 
the  piano  for  us,  as  he  liked  music  and  wanted 
to  do  something  for  the  school  each  year.  Accord- 
ingly we  set  out  early  one  morning  for  Jackson, 
twenty-four  miles  away,  with  the  bale  of  cotton, 
and  returned  with  the  piano,  which  has  been  of 
immeasurable  help  to  us.  Best  of  all,  some  eight 
months  afterwards  Mr.  Gipson  said  to  me :  "  Fes- 
ser  Jones,  I  ain't  never  regretted  I  bought  dat 
planner  fur  de  school.  Od  cose  I  only  got  fifty 
dollars  fur  my  cotton,  but  I  thought  I'd  manage 
to  get  along  somehow,  an'  it  seems  dat  since  I  done 
dat  money  has  come  to  me  an'  I'se  been  able  to  get 
hold  ob  money  dat  I  wouldn't  have  seen  if  I  hadn't 
done  dat.  Yep,  I'se  powerful  glad  I  done  it." 

The  end  of  the  school  year  came  all  too  soon. 
Because  the  people  are  poor  and  do  not  use  modern 
machinery  everybody  must  work,  and  for  this 
reason  we  set  the  closing  date  for  the  first  week  in 
May.  Instead  of  a  long  series  of  essays  and  ora- 
tions for  our  closing  exercises,  we  attempted  to 


S4  PINEY  WOODS 

show  the  people  just  what  the  students  had  been 
learning  to  try  to  make  better  their  home-life. 
Mr.  W.  P.  Mangum,  the  cashier  of  the  Braxton 
Bank,  had  offered  a  gold  medal  to  the  girl  who 
made  the  most  progress  in  cooking,  and  as  a  part 
of  the  program  the  two  girls  who  had  made  the 
highest  marks  in  class  cooked  and  served  a  meal 
before  the  audience.  In  judging  the  results  the 
person  of  the  girl,  her  care  of  the  table,  the  floor, 
and  the  stove  as  well  as  the  food  were  all  taken 
into  consideration.  Another  girl  cut  out  and  made 
a  garment  while  the  audience  watched  her.  An- 
other boy  and  girl  set  up  in  type  some  instructions 
to  the  farmers,  and  these  another  boy  ran  off  on 
the  little  press.  Still  another  boy  had  a  pig  that 
he  exhibited  to  the  audience,  and  he  pointed  out 
the  difference  between  a  good  hog  and  the  "  razor- 
back,  Piney  Woods  rooter."  Both  our  white  visit- 
ors and  our  own  people  were  exceedingly  happy 
and  enthusiastic  over  this  commencement  program. 
We  closed  school  again  out  of  debt.  Not  any  of 
us  had  drawn  salaries,  but  we  had  received  a  living 
and  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  had 
tried  to  do  a  little  good. 

Our  summer  program  was  then  made  out.  Two 
of  the  teachers  were  to  stay,  and  with  the  help  of 
a  few  students  make  a  little  farm  and  garden.  An- 


LOG  CABIN  DAYS  85 

other  I  asked  to  spend  the  summer  back  in  the 
forest  among  the  people  organizing  rural  school  im- 
provement associations,  cooking  classes,  corn  clubs, 
and  poultry  clubs.  For  each  of  these  movements 
I  made  out  the  literature  and  we  felt  that  if  they 
were  once  established  some  good  would  come  of 
them.  This  teacher  spent  the  entire  summer  in 
the  work ;  sometimes  she  was  twenty  or  even  thirty 
miles  from  a  railroad. 

I  myself  was  to  go  North  again  and  try  to  in- 
terest the  people  in  Iowa  in  what  we  were  trying 
to  do.  I  had  planned  a  little  picture  story  of  our 
work  and  had  talked  it  over  with  the  other  teach- 
ers, but  there  was  no  extra  money  for  having  it 
done.  I  had  asked  the  teachers  especially  to  re- 
member this  need  in  their  prayers  for  especially 
since  the  storm  I  had  unbounded  faith  in  the  power 
of  prayer.  One  morning  the  mail  brought  just  one 
letter,  It  was  from  Mr.  Arthur  Cox,  and  con- 
tained a  draft  which  enabled  us  to  have  the  neces- 
sary cuts  made  and  a  little  story  of  the  work  put 
into  booklet  form.  Then  I  started  upon  my 
journey. 

Two  of  the  most  important  incidents  of  this 
summer  occurred  in  Des  Moines.  Captain  Asa 
Turner  pledged  a  hundred  dollars  if  the  colored 
people  in  the  city  would  subscribe  the  same  amount. 


86  PINEY  WOODS 

This  they  readily  did.  The  other  helping  hand 
was  stretched  out  by  the  Des  Moines  Register  and 
Leader,  which  made  a  feature  story  of  the  work. 
This  was  written  hy  Mr.  F.  W.  Beckman,  now  a 
teacher  in  the  Iowa  State  College,  and  occupied 
the  entire  front  page  of  the  Sunday  magazine 
section. 

On  the  third  Monday  in  October,  1911,  we 
opened  our  third  year  with  five  teachers  who  were 
all  young  colored  people  under  thirty  years  of  age 
and  who  were  determined  to  make  their  lives  dur- 
ing the  year  count  more  than  in  any  previous  year 
of  their  history.  On  the  opening  day  each  boy 
and  girl  and  each  teacher  stood  up  and  told  of  the 
summer's  work.  One  boy  told  of  how  with  his 
knowledge  of  carpentry  gained  at  the  school  he  had 
built  a  little  shed  for  his  father.  Another  told  of 
selecting  seed  corn  and  raising  ten  more  bushels 
of  corn  on  an  acre  than  his  father  and  neighbors 
had  ever  raised.  A  girl  told  of  how  she  had  gath- 
ered a  neighbor's  children  together  in  a  little  school 
and  taught  them  for  nine  weeks.  Everybody,  it 
seemed,  had  tried  to  do  something  for  someone  else 
during  the  summer  and  all  pledged  their  faith 
anew  to  strive  as  never  before  to  build  up  them- 
selves and  the  little  school  in  the  Piney  Woods. 
Miss  Emily  Howland,  our  good  friend  who  had 


Mrs.  Laurence  C.  Jones 


LOG  CABIN  DAYS  87 

given  us  the  money  with  which  we  had  purchased 
our  little  press,  sent  for  a  report  of  the  work,  and 
being  pleased  with  it,  sent  money  with  which  to 
buy  a  larger  press  and  more  equipment  so  that  we 
could  publish  The  Pine  Torch  regularly  each 
month  and  keep  our  friends  informed  of  our  prog- 
ress. This  was  a  great  step  forward. 

About  Christmas  time  I  had  another  evidence  of 
the  power  of  prayer.  We  needed  a  typewriter  and 
had  not  the  means  to  get  one.  I  had  asked  the 
Master  to  open  the  way  and  had  thought  it  was 
to  be  by  buying  on  the  installment  plan.  On  the 
morning  on  which  I  went  to  the  post-office  to  buy 
a  money  order  for  the  first  payment  I  was  handed 
a  letter  from  the  "  Maple  Leaf  Farm."  I  eagerly 
tore  it  open  to  see  what  message  of  good  cheer 
"  Uncle  Asa "  was  sending.  To  my  surprise  it 
contained  an  express  bill  for  a  modern  typewriter 
that  was  on  the  road,  a  Christmas  gift  from  him- 
self, Hon.  Henry  Wallace,  and  others.  Another 
desire  had  been  fulfilled ;  another  straw  had  demon- 
strated that  the  wind  was  blowing  in  our  favor. 

One  other  matter  I  must  mention.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  in  my  junior  year  in  college  I  had 
been  assisted  at  a  meeting  by  a  young  woman  who 
had  had  some  experience  in  educational  work. 
This  was  Miss  Grace  M.  Allen,  a  graduate  of  the 


88  PINEY  WOODS 

Burlington  High  School,  who,  after  conducting  for 
three  years  a  school  of  her  own,  traveled  in  the 
interest  of  the  Eckstein-Norton  School  in  Ken- 
tucky until  this  was  merged  with  Berea,  and  who 
then  studied  for  two  years  in  the  Department  of 
Public  Speaking  at  the  Chicago  Conservatory  of 
Music.  We  were  married  soon  after  the  close  of 
my  third  year  at  Piney  Woods,  while  I  was  on  my 
trip  North  in  interest  of  the  school.  "  My  little 
partner"  has  the  faith  that  removes  mountains, 
and  it  is  largely  by  reason  of  her  energy  and  skill, 
her  devotion  and  enthusiasm,  that  we  have  been 
able  to  accomplish  more  within  the  last  few  years 
than  in  any  previous  years  in  the  history  of  the 
school. 


V 

"  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  " 

FOR  some  time  Taylor  Hall  and  the  log 
cabin  had  served  for  school  building,  chapel, 
dormitories,  printing-office,  and  domestic 
science  department.  The  good  white  people  of 
Braxton,  seeing  our  effort  and  desiring  to  show 
their  appreciation,  decided  to  build  a  girls'  dormi- 
tory. Mr.  J.  R.  Webster  gave  the  framing  and 
Messrs.  W.  P.  Mangum,  R.  F.  Everett  and  J.  P. 
Cox  furnished  most  of  the  means  for  finishing  the 
structure,  which  we  christened  "  Braxton  Hall." 
This  building  is  two  stories  high  and  accommodates 
about  forty  girls. 

With  the  scraps  that  were  left  we  were  able  to 
build  a  little  one-room  shop  for  manual  training. 
The  woods  and  a  group  of  our  farmer  friends  soon 
gave  us  another  little  log  cabin  shop  for  simple 
work  in  blacksmithing  and  broom-making.  The 
two  smaller  buildings  occupied  the  space  to  the 
right  and  left  of  the  walk  between  Braxton  Hall 

and  Taylor  Hall,  while  just  to  the  southeast  of 

89 


90  PINEY  WOODS 

Taylor  Hall  stood  the  old  cedar  tree  and  the 
original  log  cabin.  Across  the  road,  on  a  slight 
elevation,  we  have  erected  a  large  barn  with  money 
sent  us  by  our  friend  Mr.  Arthur  Cox,  and  here 
some  of  the  boys  stay  when  they  can  not  find  room 
elsewhere.  These  buildings  are  all  neatly  white- 
washed and  give  the  place  the  appearance  of  an 
institution. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  beginning  of  our  fifth 
year.  Mrs.  Jones  had  told  the  people  that  I  should 
be  back  for  the  opening  day  and  there  they  were, 
hundreds  of  them,  young  and  old,  and  some  from 
far  back  in  the  woods,  to  greet  me.  In  my  talk  I 
said  to  them,  among  other  things :  "  To-day  marks 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  year  of  this  little  school 
in  the  Piney  Woods.  In  the  glow  of  a  bonfire  five 
years  ago,  before  we  had  adequate  shelter,  I  saw 
many  of  your  faces  light  up  with  a  new  under- 
standing of  the  meaning  of  education  as  we  studied 
our  books  and  practised  our  manual  training. 
*  *  *  A  song  you  have  just  finished  typifies 
the  spirit  of  this  institution  more  than  anything 
else  I  know  of.  Well  may  you  sing  l  Keep  Inchin' 
Along;  Jesus  Will  Come  By  and  By,'  composed  by 
our  foreparents  in, the  dark  days  of  slavery,  for 
even  to-day  we  need  such  a  sentiment  to  guide  us 
over  the  rough  and  rugged  road  we  must  travel  if 


"  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  "  91 

we  are  to  reach  the  sunlight.  Now  we  want  to  hear 
from  those  who  have  come  out  to  welcome  us1  back, 
and  to  rejoice  with  us  in  the  generous  gift  of  two 
hundred  eighteen  acres  of  splendid  farm  land 
given  by  Dr.  D.  J.  Harris  and  Mr.  ~N.  W.  Harris; 
this  is  the  most  heartening  prosperity  that  has  yet 
come  to  us." 

Then  different  ones  of  our  friends  spoke.  We 
can  give  only  the  keynotes.  Said  Eease  Berry: 
"  Well,  sir,  us  colored  folks  been  starting  up  pro- 
jects of  one  kind  or  another  ever  since  de  war, 
schools,  cotton  gins,  and  I  don't  know  what  all,  but 
we'd  always  fall  out  and  bust  it  up  'cause  eve'y 
feller  wanted  to  be  de  leader.  But  this  school  pro- 
ject jest  beats  eve'ything."  Said  Oscar  'Cox:  "  I'm 
glad  we's  spared  to  meet  in  this  appointed  place 
again.  This  year  we's  got  a  chance  to  do  a  whole 
lot  better  than  ever  before.  I  wants  my  chillen, 
an'  dese  other  chillen,  to  do  a  whole  lot  better  an' 
pay  attention  an'  learn  a  heap  an'  obey  dese  teach- 
ers, 'cause  Fesser  sure  has  brought  in  a  fine  crop 
of  teachers."  Said  Jems  McLaurin :  "  I  have  but 
few  thoughts.  I  remember  when  these  school 
grounds  was  just  a  woods  and  an  old  field,  but  the 
power  of  education  has  changed  it.  I'm  only  sorry 
dat  I  haven't  taken  more  advantage  of  it  myself, 
though  I  have  given  my  children  the  chance." 
Then  Khodes  Donald,  who  lives  fourteen  miles 


92  PINEY  WOODS 

back  in  the  woods  from  the  school,  said :  "  I've 
been  settin'  here  listenin'  to  the  people  of  this  com- 
munity speaking  up  for  this  school  and  I  am  well 
pleased  to  know  that  the  community  is  pleased  with 
it — something  we  seldom  see,  at  least  among  our 
folks ;  there's  always  someone  to  throw  a  stumbling- 
block  in  the  way.  But  I'm  glad  to  stand  before 
you  once  more  in  life  and  say  that  quite  an  im- 
provement has  come  over  us  colored  folks.  *  *  * 
I  want  to  tell  you  what  my  boy  done.  His 
grandma  gave  him  nine  joints  of  cane  an'  told  him 
to  plant  them  an'  see  what  he  could  do.  Well,  the 
first  year  he  got  seven  stalks  of  cane  and  saved  the 
eyes  and  kept  on  planting  an'  selling  until  he's 
been  able  to  buy  him  a  yoke  of  oxen  from  those 
nine  joints.  I  hope  I  can  get  him  in  with  you  all 
and  that  this  school  will  keep  on  going  up." 
Mrs.  Taylor,  the  wife  of  Uncle  Ed  Taylor,  who 
gave  the  first  forty  acres  of  land,  then  asked  to  be 
permitted  to  say  a  few  words.  Among  other  things 
she  said :  "  I  have  been  praying  for  the  school  all 
the  time,  and  I  want  Mr.  Jones  to  know  that  he 
has  a  real  helper  in  Mrs.  Jones;  she  has  just  con- 
ducted things  this  summer  as  they  were  never  car- 
ried out  before."  Then  Mrs.  Janie  Barber  said: 
"  I  am  too  full  to  say  much,  but  I  just  wanted  to 
let  you  know  I'm  praying  for  you  all,  and  I  prays 


SOUTHERN  WHITE  FRIENDS 

(Top)  Hon.  George  R.  James,  on  the  spot  where  Goodwill  Hall 
now  Stands. 

(Center)  Col.  R.  H.  Henry,  Editor  "Clarion-Ledger,"  Jackson, 
Miss,  and  Hon.  W.  P.  Mangum. 

(Bottom)  Prof.  W.  S.  Bond,  State  Superintendent  of  Educa- 
tion in  Mississippi,  in  our  Cornfield.  The  Rt.  Rev.  G.  Gordon 
Smeade  of  Jackson,  Miss. 


"  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  »  93 

for  that  good  white  woman  who  gave  that  printing- 
press,  and  for  Uncle  Asa  Turner,  and  for  all  of 
those  who  have  done  so  much  to  help."  Then 
Please  Williams,  a  great  giant  of  a  man  with  a 
laugh  that  is  infectious,  brought  his  typical  humor 
as  well  as  his  appreciation  into  the  meeting.  Said 
he :  "  Excuse  me,  but  I'm  jest  too  full  to  spress 
myself.  Many  times  I  have  got  on  my  knees  and 
talked  to  God  about  helping  this  place  to  go  on. 
Say,  I  jest  can't  say  anything;  I'm  too  full.  Others 
have  fixed  it  up  an'  if  I  go  on  in  my  ignorant  way 
you  will  forget  all  o'  the  good  things  they  have 
said.  I'm  goin'  to  let  well  enough  alone;  it's  too 
good  a  work  to  fool  with."  Mrs.  Magee  followed, 
saying:  "I  just  want  to  testify,  but  like  the 
brother  who  just  spoke  I'm  so  full  I  hardly  know 
what  to  say.  I  appreciate  the  good  works  that  are 
going  on  here.  It  was  five  years  ago  I  first  heard 
of  this  school.  I  was  living  way  back  in  the  coun- 
try, forty  or  fifty  miles  from  here,  and  one  of  the 
teachers  came  by  and  told  me  of  it.  Well,  I  didn't 
see  how  we  could  ever  get  to  it  as  we  are  poor  and 
have  a  large  family,  but  I  went  down  the  knee  way, 
trusted  God,  prayed  He  would  help  me  to  obtain 
the  blessing  of  a  school  for  my  children;  and  now, 
praise  the  Lord,  we  are  right  in  the  neighborhood 
of  it.  That's  why  I  trust  in  God.  I  want  to  tell 


94  PINEY  WOODS 

you  God  must  be  in  this  place;  His  works  are  re- 
vealed. My!  but  I'm  happy;  the  Lord  has  pro- 
vided a  way  for  my  children.  I  want  you  all  to' 
pray  for  me  and  send  me  messages  of  hope."  So 
sincere  was  this  good  woman  in  her  appreciation 
of  the  school  and  her  trust  in  the  Lord  that  one 
aged  woman  whose  early  days  had  been  spent  in 
slavery  talked  and  sang  and  shouted  as  if  she  had 
been  at  a  revival,  and  others  were  visibly  affected. 
I  then  announced  that  the  school  had  a  chaplain 
for  the  year  who  would  preach  every  Sunday  morn- 
ing at  eleven  o'clock ;  but  before  we  could  introduce 
him  Mrs.  Taylor  arose  and  said :  "  Please  excuse 
me,  Professor,  but  I'm  aroused.  You  have  done 
my  heart  good.  The  Lord  has  answered  my  pray- 
ers. The  nearest  church  being  only  once  a  month, 
I've  had  to  go  so  far  every  Sunday  to  hear  the  word 
of  the  Lord  that  I  have  prayed  for  a  better  oppor- 
tunity. The  Lord  being  my  helper,  I'll  be  here 
every  Sunday  morning." 

In  the  autumn  of  this  fifth  year  the  little  school 
had  become  so  widely  known  and  the  responsibility 
of  its  management  was  becoming  so  much  greater 
each  day  that  it  was  decided  that  the  time  was  ripe 
foi  applying  for  a  charter.  One  was  accordingly 
drawn  up  and  submitted  to  the  Attorney-General 
of  the  State  of  Mississippi.  I  think  that  in  all  the 


"MESSAGES  OF  HOPE"  95 

world  there  has  never  been  a  group  of  braver  men 
than  those  who  were  formally  behind  this  effort  in 
our  development.  Mr.  W.  P.  Mangum,  our  treas- 
urer and  the  cashier  of  the  Braxton  Bank,  is  one 
of  the  most  progressive  young  white  men  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi.  Hon.  R.  F.  Everett,  who  is 
president  of  the  Braxton  Bank,  is  one  of  the  oldest 
pioneers  in  the  Piney  Woods  and  a  veritable 
patriarch  in  the  country  round  about.  Major  R. 
W.  Millsaps,  who  was  in  the  "  Army  of  the  Lost 
Cause,"  was  one  of  the  foremost  men  in  Missis- 
sippi in  financial  affairs  and  the  most  beloved  man 
in  the  state  because  of  his  great  philanthropic 
heart.  Captain  Asa  Turner,  well  known  farmer 
and  pioneer  booster,  because  of  his  great  humanity, 
loving  heart,  and  Christian  association  with  young 
men,  had  become  the  most  beloved  man  in  Iowa. 
Dr.  D.  J.  Harris,  brother  of  the  late  well  known 
"N.  W.  Harris,  of  the  Harris  Trust  and  Savings 
Company  of  Chicago,  is  of  a  family  whose  business 
ability,  integrity,  and  helpfulness  are  known 
throughout  the  West.  E.  N.  Taylor,  ex-slave,  a 
man  of  level  head  and  keen  business  instinct,  had 
become  one  of  the  most  successful  men  of  the  race 
in  Mississippi.  Amon  Gipson,  a  staunch  man, 
represents  the  masses  of  the  people,  and  Rev.  H.  L. 
McClaurin  is  a  farmer  and  local  minister.  These 


96  PINEY  WOODS 

men,  together  with  the  principal  and  his  wife,  were 
those  who  signed  the  charter  which  was  submitted 
to  the  Governor  of  the  State,  and  to  whom  on  May 
17,  1913,  was  formally  granted  the  charter  of 
"  The  Piney  Woods  Country  Life  School."  These 
men  form  the  basis  of  our  Trustee  Board,  and  we 
also  have  a  special  committee  for  the  handling  and 
investment  of  any  special  gifts  or  endowment. 
This  committee  is  composed  of  Dr.  D.  J.  Harris, 
chairman;  Mr.  W.  P.  Mangum,  and  Captain  Asa. 
Turner.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  article  in 
the  charter  which  we  acquired  is  that  which  reads: 
"  The  cost  of  education  shall,  as  far  as  practicable, 
be  reduced  to  the  lowest  point  consistent  with  the 
•efficient  operation  of  said  school  and  every  reason- 
able effort  shall  be  made  to  bring  education  for 
country  life  within  the  ability  of  the  poorer  classes 
of  the  Black  Belt." 

These  were  days  of  rough  pioneering,  and  yet 
I  love  them  because  of  the  kindly  disposition  of 
most  of  the  white  people  in  our  vicinity,  and  the 
sweet  simplicity  and  devotion  of  the  children  of 
the  soil.  And  they  were  dream  days  as  well. 
Coming  in  from  the  field  during  the  heat  of  the 
day  one  would  sit  in  the  shadows  near  our  quaint 
vine-harbored  little  spring  or  at  evening  look  across 
the  moon-washed  fields  into  the  great  dark  woods 


"MESSAGES  OF  HOPE"  97 

and  dream  such,  dreams  as  those  of  which  my 
former  teacher,  Miss  Mary  Grove  Chawner,  wrote 
from  dear  Iowa.  Said  she :  "  The  name  Piney 
Woods  still  appeals  to  me,  as  from  the  first,  with 
the  suggestion  of  beauty  in  the  picture  of  the  tall, 
straight  trees  of  natural,  unhindered,  perfect 
growth.  The  idea  of  vigor  is  there  too,  in  the 
wholesome,  resinous  odor,  and  the  wind  among  the 
high  branches  breathing  the  music  of  true  and 
good  thoughts  born  above  in  the  sunlight  which 
filters  down  dimly  but  gloriously  to  the  listener 
below.  So  to  me  there  is  the  suggestion  of  poetry 
and  aspiration  in  The  Piney  Woods  which  makes 
it  a  right  name  for  such  a  school  as  yours.  Then 
there  is  practical  suggestion  no  less  appropriate. 
When  the  forest  is  gone  to  serve  its  purpose  in  the 
world  of  men,  there  is  the  soil,  thick-carpeted  with 
pine-needles,  the  gathered  humus  of  years  ready  to 
serve  mankind  in  its  way.  The  name  of  your 
paper  is  no  less  than  an  inspiration — The  Pine 
Torch — for  its  instant  suggestion  of  light  and  its 
symbolism  of  the  several  pieces  that  must  be  used 
together  to  keep  the  torch  alight." 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  work  we  had 
visitors  who  brought  us  words  of  good  cheer. 
After  the  work  had  become  known  beyond  our  im- 
mediate locality  we  were  able  to  have  as  speakers 


98  PINEY  WOODS 

and  visitors  at  various  times  such  prominent  white 
men  of  the  South  as  Major  Patrick  Henry,  Bishop 
Theodore  DuBose  Bratton,  Rev.  G.  Gordon  Sneade, 
Hon.  B.  W.  Griffith,  president  of  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Vicksburg;  Mr.  Thad  B.  Lampton, 
vice-president  of  the  Capitol  National  Bank  of 
Jackson;  Col.  R.  H.  Henry,  Mr.  R.  H.  Green, 
Rev.  Marcellus  Green,  Prof.  W.  S.  Bond,  State 
Superintendent  of  Education ;  Hon.  Bura  Hilburn, 
Mrs.  Marjorie  C.  McGehee,  Mr.  Bolton  Smith, 
Mr.  Frederick  Sullens,  Hon.  George  R.  James,  and 
we  counted  among  our  supporters  Mr.  W.  E. 
Lampton,  Mr.  T.  J.  Thomas,  Capt.  J.  W.  John- 
son of  Pantherburn,  Mrs.  Grace  Jones  Stewart, 
and  Dr.  J.  H.  Dillard  of  the  Jeanes  and  Slater 
Funds.  Within  recent  years  one  of  our  best  friends 
also  has  been  Mrs.  Annie  M.  Malone,  of  St.  Louis', 
a  representative  and  successful  business  woman  of 
my  own  race. 

Our  first  visitor  from  the  North  was  one  fre- 
quently mentioned  in  these  pages — one  affection- 
ately known  everywhere  as  "  Uncle  "  Asa  Turner, 
but  by  those  who  want  to  be  formal  as  Col.  Asa 
Turner.  He  came  to  our  first  Farmers'  Confer- 
ence, and  such  an  impression  did  he  make  that  the 
simple  folk  of  the  Piney  Woods  began  to  ask 
immediately  after  his  departure,  "  Reckon  Cap. 


"MESSAGES  OP  HOPE"  99 

Turner  ever  come  back  ?  "  or  "  When  is  Uncle  Asia 
comin'  again  ?  "  Then  came  the  late  Prof.  Laenas 
G.  Weld,  formerly  head  of  the  Department  of 
Mathematics  and  later  Dean  of  the  College  of  Lib- 
eral Arts  of  the  State  University  of  Iowa,  and 
afterwards  president  and  builder  of  the  three  mil- 
lion dollar  technical  school  provided  for  in  the  will 
of  the  late  George  Mortimer  Pullman.  He  it  was 
who  delivered  the  dedication  address  of  the  dormi- 
tory which  we  called  Braxton  HalL  In  writing 
of  his  visit  in  the  university  Alumnus  he  said: 
"  There  are  at  the  Piney  Woods  Institute  no  shops 
or  laboratories  or  other  equipment  that  are  not, 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  university  man,  pitiably 
inadequate;  but  there  is  a  definiteness  and  a 
strength  of  purpose,  and  adaptation  of  simple 
means  to  practical  ends,  an  enthusiasm  on  the  part 
of  pupils  and  teachers,  and  certainty  of  reasonable 
success  in  their  work,  which  even  the  most  favored 
of  our  colleges  and  technical  schools  could  afford 
to  sacrifice  much  to  secure."  We  were  also  fa- 
vored in  this  period  by  a  visit  from  Rev.  Ernest  C. 
Smith,  of  Chicago.  He  spent  several  days  with  us 
looking  over  the  plant  and  meeting  the  white  citi- 
zens of  Braxton.  In  recording  his  impressions  he 
said :  "  The  work  is  inspired  by  a  high  ideal,  but 
is  intensely  practical  and  broadly  sane.  It  not 


100  PINEY  WOODS 

only  fits  teachers  for  rural  schools  and  gives  indus- 
trial training;  it  is  also  a  center  of  extension  work, 
carrying  the  gospel  of  better  farming,  better  liv- 
ing, and  better  schools  and  churches,  throughout  a 
wide  area."  Among  other  visitors  were  Mr.  Roger 
F.  Etz,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  and  Rev.  J.  B.  Lehman, 
a  splendid  Christian  gentleman  who  has  labored 
faithfully  for  twenty-five  years  at  the  head  of  a 
school  maintained  for  my  people  by  the  Christian 
Church.  He  met  the  citizens  of  Braxton  and  made 
a  careful  study  of  the  community  and  the  school, 
and  later  said :  "  The  people  were  hungry  for  the 
truth  and  it  was  a  delight  to  speak  to  them  the 
great  truths  of  God's  word,  which  are  the  way  to 
all  human  progress."  Dr.  G.  S.  Dickerman,  who 
has  been  interested  in  Negro  education  for  many 
years,  and  who  has  traveled  extensively  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  Slater  Fund  for  Negro  Schools,  wrote 
concerning  our  work  as  follows :  "  I  had  never 
heard  of  the  Piney  Woods  country  as  offering  un- 
usual attractions  for  a  colored  school.  It  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  sort  of  white  man's  country,  but 
actually  in  the  two  counties  for  which  this  school 
was  Started  the  colored  children  were  nearly  as 
numerous  as  the  white.  Certainly  the  founder 
made  no  mistake  in  breaking  into  the  Piney  Woods 
country,  for  he  found  a  large  number  of  neglected 


"MESSAGES  OF  HOPE"  101 

people  eager  to  welcome  him  to  his  undertaking 
and  a  great  many  white  neighbors  ready  to  join  in 
the  welcome  and  to  assist  his  efforts."  In  Novem- 
ber, 1913,  another  friend  whose  business  was  en- 
tirely different  from  that  of  these  other  friends, 
came  by  to  see  us.  In  writing  of  the  school  to  his 
home  paper,  The  Evanston  News-Index,  Dr.  D.  J. 
Harris  said :  "  Not  a  little  in  the  way  of  extension 
work  is  being  done  in  the  surrounding  country,  and 
already  the  results  are  apparent  in  more  diversi- 
fied farming,  better  tillage,  and  more  tidy  homes. 
Everything  is  severely  plain,  not  to  say  crude,  but 
the  great  Abraham  Lincoln  acquired  much  of  his 
training  by  the  light  of  pine  knots  in  a  log  cabin, 
and  I  know  of  no  work  where  a  dollar  will  go  far- 
ther in  effecting  an  uplift  of  a  people,  white  and 
Hack,  than  in  this  work  that  is  being  done  at  the 
Piney  Woods  School."  Other  friends  who  came  in 
these  early  years  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  O.  Fink- 
bine,  Miss  Dorothy  Finkbine,  Miss  Charlotte  Flem- 
ing, Miss  Beulah  Pack  of  New  Jersey,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  E.  H.  Sunderland  of  Minnesota,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Arthur  Cox,  Mrs.  Dixie  C.  Gebhardt,  a 
prominent  D.  A.  K.,  and  Mr.  W.  C.  Harbach.  A 
little  later  we  had  the  honor  of  a  visit  from  Hon. 
James  B.  Weaver,  Rev.  Edmund  March  Yittum, 
Hon.  J.  Q.  McPherrin,  Dr.  James  Madison  Stifler, 


102  PINEY  WOODS 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Horace  Hollingsworth,  Attorney 
Charles  Grilk,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  P.  DeLaittre  of 
Minnesota  and  Mr.  Harold  T.  Pulsifer,  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Outlook. 

Mr.  Abraham  Slimmer  was  the  first  to  begin 
provision  for*  a  permanent  income  for  Piney  Woods. 
He  provided  a  foundation  of  $2,000  for  our  en- 
dowment in  his  will.  One  thousand  was  added  a 
little  later  by  Mr.  John  Oleson  of  Two  Harbors, 
Minnesota.  More  recently  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James 
Gooden  of  Iowa  have  made  a  departure  from  lega- 
cies in  giving  us  $500,  expressing  the  sentiment  that 
they  wanted  to  see  this  money  at  work  for  Piney 
Woods  while  they  were  living.  Mr.  Cliff  Musser 
has  helped  wonderfully  by  his  generosity  in  provid- 
ing sums  large  enough  to  cover  a  specific  need. 
Others  who  have  not  visited  us  have  put  their  faith 
into  our  venture  and  helped  us  in  a  large  way :  Mr. 
Melvin  Ellis,  Mr.  Lafe  Collins  and  Mr.  J.  L.  Col- 
lins, Mrs1.  Minnie  McKerral,  Miss  Flora  Dunlap, 
Mr.  T.  A.  Potter,  and  the  late  Mr.  George  S.  Gar- 
diner. 

Down  in  the  Piney  Woods  we  had  become  used 
to  surprises,  both  great  and  small,  pleasant  and 
otherwise;  but  when  the  news  came  that  Mrs.  Nel- 
lie F.  Brooks  was  coming  to  help  on  our  teaching 
force  and  that,  too,  free  of  charge,  it  was  almost 
more  than  we  could  grasp.  It  was  not  so  much 
the  great  kindness  or  nobility  of  her  deed  that  sur- 


SOUTHERN  WHITE  FRIENDS 

(Top)  Mr.  Thad  B.  Lampton,  President,  Capitol  National 
Bank,  Jackson,  Miss. 

(Below)  Hon.  B.  W.Griffith,  President,  First  National  Bank, 
Vicksburg,  Miss.  Mr.  Wayne  May,  Editor  County  paper, 
Brandon,  Miss.  Hon.  W.  P.  Mangum,  Formerly  cashier 
Braxton  Bank,  now  Appraiser  Federal  Loan  Bank. 


"MESSAGES  OF  HOPE"  103 

prised  us,  for  we  knew  she  was  noble  and  kind; 
but,  accustomed  as  we  were  to  the  spirit  and  the 
reality  of  sacrifice,  we  still  found  it  difficult  to 
realize  the  breadth  of  the  spirit  that  could  cause 
one  to  leave  surroundings  such  as  hers  and  come 
to  make  her  dwelling,  even  for  a  little  while,  in  a 
place  like  ours.  To  be  sure,  at  that  time  Piney 
Woods  was  quite  an  improvement  on  what  it  had 
been  in  the  first  few  years.  We  were  now  using 
cooking-stoves  in  the  kitchens  instead  of  camp- 
fires,  and  the  roofs  in  the  sleeping  rooms  were  in 
such  order  that  we  did  not  see  quite  so  many  stars 
as  formerly ;  moreover,  everybody  now  had  a  sleep- 
ing place,  and  nearly  everybody  had  nearly  enough 
covering  for  the  chill  autumn  nights,  or  hopes  of 
it  before  the  real  winter  set  in.  Furthermore,  we 
were  all  getting  enough  to  eat  now  and  not  so  fre- 
quently did  we  casually  "  drop  in  "  on  our  friends 
in  the  community  about  meal  time  and  gracefully, 
though  protestingly,  accept  the  unfailing  invitation 
to  "  set  up  "  to  the  table.  But  how  would  such 
comfort  and  affluence  as  this  impress  Mrs.  Brooks  ? 
All  of  our  teachers  had  been  used  to  better  living 
than  they  were  getting,  but  Mrs.  Brooks  had  been 
used  to  the  best.  There  was  her  beautiful  home  in 
the  city  of  Waterloo,  there  was  her  splendid  church 
and  her  position  there  as  organist,  also  the  Sunday 


104  PINEY  WOODS 

School  in  which  she  had  been  a  teacher  for  more 
than  twenty  years;  there  were  her  friends  and  as- 
sociates and  all  the  pleasant  influences  that  belong 
to  a  life  and  position  such  as  hers;  and  Piney 
Woods  had  nothing  to  offer  in  the  way  of  reward. 
But  Mrs.  Brooks  was  a  D.  A.  R.,  a  Past  Regent 
of  the  Mary  Melrose  Chapter,  and  so  with  the  un- 
daunted spirit  of  valor  and  sacrifice  that  was  her 
heritage  she  put  on  the  armor  and  came  to  Piney 
Woods  to  help  us  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith.  In 
deep  thankfulness  we  made  ready  for  her  coming. 
Everybody  planned,  suggested,  worked.  Hospital- 
ity was  in  the  air.  Everything  was  gone  over, 
brushed,  scrubbed,  and  shined.  New  coats  of 
whitewash  were  put  on  here  and  there;  lawns  were 
trimmed;  walks  were  freshly  spread  with  sandy 
gravel  from  the  shallows  of  the  creek  bed.  Mean- 
while the  "  Brooks  Addition  "  was  going  up.  This 
structure,  built  of  fragrant  logs  from  the  near-by 
forest,  and  boards,  some  of  which  were  "  rived " 
on  the  place,  was  to  be  the  new  teacher's  home.  It 
was  built  with  all  the  care  we  were  able  to  bestow 
upon  it,  and  when  it  was  finished  we  hoped  that 
at  least  as  a  snug  little  shelter  in  the  Piney  Woods 
it  would  do.  Inside  it  was  neat  and  trim  and  spot- 
less; outside  the  walls  were  beyond  reproach  in 
their  two  velvety  coats  of  whitewash.  Then  Mrs. 


"MESSAGES  OF  HOPE"  105 

Brooks  came,  and  was  delighted.  She  took  posses- 
sion of  the  humble  dwelling  very  much  as  I 
imagine  a  queen  would  take  possession  of  a  throne, 
and  with  the  magic  that  was  hers  she  soon  trans- 
formed it  into  a  home.  How  she  accomplished  it 
I  know  not.  She  did  not  bring  much  luggage  with 
her — just  a  trunk  and  a  few  medium-sized,  ordi- 
nary-looking boxes;  but  it  seemed  that  into  them 
she  had  packed  all  the  essentials  for  a  dainty 
and  appealing  little  home.  Bits  of  drapery,  gay 
chintzes  and  cretonnes,  a  bright  cushion  or  two, 
filmy  lace  curtains  at  the  windows,  a  painting  and 
etching  here  and  there,  a  few  books,  a  shining  tea- 
kettle, a  brass  lamp  with  a  shade  like  a  big  silken 
rose,  a  pair  of  andirons,  two  or  three  little  statu- 
ettes and  groups  in  marble  or  bronze,  some  delicate 
china  cups  and  saucers,  some  teaspoons  that  rang 
like  deep-toned  little  bells,  a  rug  or  two  that  sof- 
tened the  footsteps  like  thick  woodland — it  all  made 
a  veritable  wonder-house;  and  the  children  there- 
about, crude  little  beauty-worshippers  that  they 
were,  fought  and  schemed  for  the  privilege  of  work- 
ing there,  whether  to  wash  dishes,  run  errands,  or 
sweep  the  yard.  They  were  simply  fascinated  by 
the  place  and  its  owner ;  and  they  brought  her  ferns 
and  flowers,  they,  too,  began  to  tidy  up  with  their 
small  abilities,  and  they,  too,  took  on  many  little 


106  PINEY  WOODS 

ways  of  politeness  and  neatness.  One  mother  said 
that  her  little  boy  was  "  might  nigh  "  ten  years  old, 
and  the  first  time  he  was  ever  known  to  volunteer 
to  wash  his  face  was  one  day  when  he  was  going 
to  work  for  "  Mis'  Brooks."  And  from  day  to  day 
this  valiant  worker  presided  over  all  like  a  high 
priestess.  She  could  not  express  her  enjoyment; 
everything  delighted  and  interested  her,  from  the 
fat  brown  little  children  to  the  knotty  problems  of 
school  finances  and  management.  She  loved  the 
birds,  the  air,  the  flowers,  and  the  big  pine  woods 
filling  the  winds  with  their  resinous  fragrance;  she 
loved  the  duties  that  confronted  her  from  day 
to  day,  and  she  fairly  radiated  interest  and  en- 
thusiasm. 

Then  one  night  it  rained,  dismally,  coldly,  and 
long.  We  heard  it,  my  wife  and  I,  but  our  roofs 
being  generally  rainproof  after  many  patchings  we 
thought  little  about  it,  and  we  thought  that  all 
were  comfortable  for  the  night.  The  next  morn- 
ing, however,  Mrs.  Brooks  told  us  how  she  had 
been  awakened  by  a  little  stream  of  icy  water 
falling  on  her  face,  and  how  after  a  while  the  roof 
was  leaking  everywhere  and  the  water  settling  over 
the  floor  in  little  pools.  iShe  joked  about  it  all  the 
next  day,  and  we  tried  to  be  a  little  comical  too, 
but  in  our  hearts  we  were  very  sorry. 


"  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  "  107 

Brave,  noble  Mrs.  Brooks!  The  two  years  that 
she  spent  in  the  Piney  Woods  will  always  be  re- 
membered by  those  who  were  there  then ;  and  their 
influence  will  be  known  and  felt  for  generations  to 
come,  for  as  one  small  seed  sometimes  produces  a 
mighty  tree,  that  in  turn  produces  thousands  of 
seeds  and  other  trees,  just  so  a  noble  deed  produces 
other  conditions  and  influences  that  in  turn  go 
widening  on  and  on  until  they  reach  eternity. 

Miss  Doris  James  is  another  member  of  the 
white  race  who  since  the  time  of  Mrs.  Brooks  has 
come  to  share  her  light  with  those  not  so  favored 
as  herself.  In  the  office  she  is  doing  much  that  we 
had  not  been  able  to  do  ourselves.  Always  cheer- 
ful, when  our  means  have  been  exhausted  she  has 
braved  the  ice  and  snow  of  winter  to  tell  our 
friends  in  the  North  personally  of  our  urgent 
needs.  Assisting  her  at  the  school  is  Miss  Mable 
Watson,  another  member  of  her  race  and  a  most 
faithful  worker. 

While  these  friends  and  workers  were  coming  to 
•us,  I  myself  continued  my  efforts  for  the  school  by 
trips  to  the  North,  especially  in  the  summer.  I 
had  various  experiences  in  seeking  lodging  in  some 
of  the  towns  in  Iowa  and  Minnesota.  Sometimes 
I  slept  in  depots,  once  I  stayed  over  night  in  a  box- 
ear,  and  after  one  particularly  trying  experience 


108  PINEY  WOODS 

with  two  young  policemen,  a  kindly  night  captain 
in  a  police  station  permitted  me  to  stay  until 
morning  on  a  bunk  in  a  cell.  On  one  occasion, 
however,  I  met  Mr.  Abraham  .Slimmer,  a  member 
of  the  Jewish  race  and  one  of  the  eminent  philan- 
thropists of  Iowa.  When  he  found  that  I  had  had 
difficulty  in  getting  lodging,  he  offered  me  a  place 
in  his  home.  To-day  among  the  most  enthusiastic 
friends  and  loyal  supporters  of  Piney  Woods  are 
such  people  of  his  race  as  Mrs.  Babette  Frankel, 
Mr.  J.  L.  Sheuerman,  Mr.  Nate  Frankel,  and  Mr. 
M.  Mendelsohn.  Among  other  friends  whose  prac- 
tical Christianity  strengthened  us  was  Mr.  Merrit 
Greene,  a  descendant  of  Nathaniel  Greene  of  Revo- 
lutionary fame.  At  a  critical  period  in  our  de- 
velopment I  received  an  invitation  to  speak  at  sev- 
eral meetings  in  Marshalltown  that  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Greene  had  arranged  for  us.  Mrs.  Jones  was  to 
give  some  readings  and  I  was  to  tell  of  the  school. 
Never  before  had  the  opportunity  to  meet  so  many 
of  the  best  people  in  one  place  come  to  us.  We 
spoke  at  the  First  Congregational  Church,  the 
High  School,  a  Public  School  Mothers'  Club,  the 
colored  Baptist  Church,  before  the  veterans  of  the 
Soldiers'  Home,  and  especially  at  a  joint  session 
of  two  chapters  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  in  the  colonial  living-room  of  "  Edge- 


"  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  "  109 

worth,"  the  beautiful  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Greene. 

One  of  the  greatest  blessings  we  have  ever  re- 
ceived came  when  Mr.  W.  O.  Finkbine  and  his 
brother,  Mr.  E.  C.  Finkbine,  of  Des  Moines, 
turned  over  to  us  more  than  eight  hundred  acres  of 
their  cut-over  timber  holdings  which  adjoined  our 
school  land.  This  most  desirable  gift  not  only  gave 
us  assurance  of  plenty  of  space  in  which  to  enlarge 
but  also  provided  our  supply  of  fuel,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  lumber  that  can  be  had  when  our  saw-mill 
dreams  become  a  reality.  Parts  of  this  land  are 
level  and  can  be  cleared  and  farmed,  while  the  steep 
slopes  of  other  portions  will  for  years  to  come  yield 
their  harvest  of  stove-wood. 

Among  the  friends  who  have  helped  us  with  their 
pens  are  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Paul  Lee  Ellerbe,  two  suc- 
cessful writers  who  in  the  course  of  their  work 
have  secured  for  our  school  splendid  publicity  in 
Collier's,  McClure's,  and  other  periodicals.  We 
first  met  these  friends  on  the  Redpath-Vawter 
Chautauqua  circuit,  when  we  were  thrown  with 
them  and  the  Williams  Singers,  an  excellent  group 
of  colored  musicians,  on  the  third  day  of  the  pro- 
gram. At  first  they  had  the  extreme  Southern 
viewpoint  with  reference  to  ourselves  and  our 
work,  but  later  a  visit  of  a  week  to  our  struggling 


110  PINEY  WOODS 

institution  proved  to  them  its  merits  and  they 
went  home  to  bend  their  energies  toward  its  up- 
building. 

Perhaps  more  shadowy  tales  do  not  at  first  seem 
to  belong  with  "  Messages  of  Hope,"  and  yet  it  is 
a  fact  that  each  misfortune  has  only  served  to 
strengthen  our  faith  in  our  friends  and  in  God. 
One  morning  just  after  breakfast  we  looked  up  and 
saw  our  large  school  barn  in  flames.  The  building 
was  not  only  a  barn  but  the  home  of  some  of  the 
larger  boys,  who  found  quarters  in  the  loft.  Some 
years  later,  on  a  cold  Saturday  night,  Harris  Hall, 
the  dormitory  that  accommodated  more  than  fifty 
boys,  went  up  in  smoke;  this  was  our  best  build- 
ing at  the  time,  and  in  the  fire  some  of  our  teach- 
ers lost  all  their  possessions.  Another  blow  came 
with  the  cyclone  that  totally  destroyed  the  town  of 
Braxton,  three  miles  from  the  school.  Braxton 
was  our  business  and  banking  center,  and  because 
the  people  of  the  town  were  so  much  worse  off  than 
ourselves,  not  only  did  we  have  to  stand  consider- 
able loss  on  account  of  the  destruction  of  the  bank, 
but  it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  us  to  render  all 
the  practical  aid  we  could  at  a  time  when  ordi- 
narily our  boys  would  have  been  planting  our  crops 
for  the  year.  Not  a  year  has  passed  without  some 
crisis  in  which  only  faith  could  point  the  way. 


Harris  Hall,  Dormitory  that  Burned 
Boys  Living  in  Tents  Afterwards 


"  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  "  111 

Each  year  the  increasing  needs  of  the  school  make 
$25,000  an  absolute  necessity,  yet  again  and  again 
we  have  faced  the  future  without  any  definite 
promise  of  a  penny  of  this  amount. 

In  the  South,  as  may  be  imagined,  I  had  various 
experiences,  and  some  are  written  upon  my  mind 
in  letters  of  flame.  Of  them  all  I  feel  that  I  must 
tell  the  story  of  one,  not  only  because  it  was  the 
most  fearful  of  all,  but  also  because  it  reveals  the 
gleam  of  hope  that  sometimes  lurks  beneath  the 
surface  even  with  those  whom  we  consider  hostile. 
Just  before  we  entered  the  World  War  a  friend  of 
mine  who  was  a  minister  in  a  state  west  of  the 
Mississippi  asked  me  to  come  and  help  him  in  a 
revival,  saying  that  while  I  was  not  a  preacher 
he  thought  that  I  might  still  be  able  to  help  him. 
On  the  third  night  I  happened  to  use  various  words 
and  phrases  drawn  from  military  life  and  opera- 
tions, telling  the  people  that  life  itself  was  a  battle, 
that  we  must  stay  on  the  firing-line,  and  battle 
against  ignorance,  superstition,  poverty,  and  all 
the  evil  elements  of  earth  and  air.  Some  white 
boys  who  happened  to  be  riding  near  the  church 
stopped  and  listened  a  few  minutes  and  then  has- 
tened away  to  their  settlements  spreading  the  news 
that  I  was  urging  the  Negroes  to  "  rise  up  and 
fight  the  white  people."  The  next  day  about  noon 


112  PINEY  WOODS 

half  a  hundred  men  rode  up  to  the  church  door  and 
called  for  me.  The  people  in  the  church  with 
blanched  faces  looked  toward  me,  and  fear  such  as 
I  never  before  saw  on  human  faces  looked  piteously 
out  of  their  eyes.  I  went  to  the  door  and  said  to 
the  men,  "  I  guess  I'm  the  one  you're  looking  for." 
The  leader  in  a  harsh  voice  ordered  me  to  get  in  the 
center.  The  others  closed  around  me;  one  threw 
a  rope  over  my  head  and  drew  the  noose,  and  down 
the  road  we  went.  The  rest  is  a  nightmare  through 
which  somehow  sing  strains  of  old  Negro  melodies. 
We  went  to  a  place  rather  free  from  trees,  save 
one  with  a  stout,  jagged  branch  reaching  out  from 
it.  Under  this  branch  had  been  piled  wood, 
branches,  and  fagots,  and  around  the  pile  was  a 
sea  of  stem  faces,  while  riders  on  horses  and  mules 
kept  coming  in  an  unending  stream.  A  horrible 
yell  rent  the  air  and  two  or  three  young  boys 
climbed  the  tree  ready  to  catch  the  rope,  I  was 
picked  up  bodily  and  thrown  on  the  top  of  the  pile 
of  wood,  while  another  roar  of  noise  went  up  from 
every  throat.  Meanwhile  I  could  hear  the  cocking 
and  priming  of  guns  and  revolvers,  and  from  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  crowd  random  shots  had  begun  to 
be  fired.  Then  a  strange  thing  happened.  One 
man  jumped  to  the  side  of  the  log  heap  and,  wav- 
ing his  hat  for  silence,  demanded  that  I  make  a 


" MESSAGES  OF  HOPE"  113 

speech.  With  a  prayer  for  help  I  did  speak;  I 
spoke  as  I  had  never  spoken  before  about  the  life 
in  our  Southland  and  of  what  we  should  all  do  to 
make  it  better.  I  told  stories  that  made  the  crowd 
laugh,  I  explained  what  I  had  really  said  the  night 
before,  I  referred  to  different  white  men  in  the 
South  with  whom  I  had  had  helpful  dealing,  nam- 
ing such  men  as  Hon.  R.  F.  Everett,  Major  Patrick 
Henry,  Hon.  W.  P.  Mangum,  and  Major  R.  W. 
Milsaps,  and  I  finally  said  that  I  knew  there  was 
no  man  standing  there  who  wanted  to  go  to  God 
with  the  blood  of  an  innocent  man  on  his  hands. 
Then  an  aged  man  wearing  a  Confederate  button 
pushed  his  way  through  the  crowd  and  waving  his 
hand  for  silence,  said,  "  I  know  those  men,  they're 
all  right  folks ;  this  must  be  a  good  darky."  Turn- 
ing, he  grasped  my  hand — "  Come  on  down,  boy," 
he  said,  as  he  pulled  me  to  him  and  took  the  rope 
from  around  my  neck,  then  others  reached  out  and 
shook  hands  with  me.  God  had  delivered.  Some 
on  the  edge  of  the  crowd  were  muttering,  for  they 
felt  they  had  been  cheated  out  of  their  fun,  but 
the  majority  seemed  to  be  with  me.  Then  some- 
one shouted,  "  Let's  take  up  a  collection  for  the 
Parson;"  and  several  began  passing  hats.  Some 
actually  threw  money  at  me.  Some  asked,  "  When 
are  you  going  to  preach  again,  Parson  ?  We  want 
to  be  there."  The  collection  finally  amounted  to 
fifty  dollars. 


114  PLNEY  WOODS 

Then  one  man  let  me  have  the  use  of  his  horse,  he 
took  another,  and  together  we  rode  back  to  the 
church. 

As  we  drew  near  the  church  it  seemed  deserted, 
but  as  we  approached  the  door  we  could  hear  a 
mellow  voice  in  prayer.  We  learned  that  in  their 
fright  the  people  had  scattered  to  their  homes,  all 
save  half  a  dozen  of  the  older  men,  who  had  been 
down  on  their  knees  all  the  time  I  had  been  gone 
asking  God  to  perform  a  miracle  as  He  did  with 
Daniel  in  the  lions'  den  and  with  the  three  Hebrew 
children  in  the  fiery  furnace.  But  although  they 
had  been  praying  for  my  return  they  could  hardly 
believe  it  and  as  they  looked  at  me  were  frightened 
enough  to  run.  Then  my  companion  said,  "  This 
ain't  no  ghost ;  it's  the  same  teacher  we  took  away. 
It's  all  a  mistake  and  he's  all  right;  I  mean  to 
come  out  and  hear  him  myself.  He's  done  us  more 
good  to-day  than  he's  done  you  all  ever  since  he's 
been  here.  Next  time  you  have  a  meeting  I'll  be 
out  and  tell  you  about  it."  Then  he  departed, 
leaving  me  with  my  own;  and  those  dear  old  men, 
bent  with  years  of  toil  and  struggle,  always  long- 
ing and  hoping  for  the  better  day  that  never  came, 
hugged  me  and  cried  and  sang  and  prayed,  and  as 
we  came  out  of  the  church  the  west  was  aglow  with 
a  wonderful  sunset,  the  most  wonderful  I  had  ever 


lt  MESSAGES  OF  HOPE  "  115 

seen.  The  stillness  was  enchanting,  and  far  across 
the  pine  trees  the  fading  light  brought  a  feeling 
of  relief  and  contentment. 

After  the  evening  meal  was  over  we  sat  in  a 
circle,  father,  mother,  grandfather,  children,  and 
a  few  neighbors,  and  with  eager  faces  they  listened 
to  the  story  as  I  told  it.  Then  I  went  to  my  rest, 
and  in  my  dreams  I  seemed  to  be  standing  on  a 
huge  pile  of  fagots  with  the  red  flames  licking  the 
air  about  me.  Then  I  thought  of  our  struggle  in 
the  Piney  Woods,  of  the  battle  from  day  to  day, 
of  the  new  strides  forward,  of  the  "  inching  along  " 
to  higher  ideals  and  nobler  living.  I  also  remem- 
bered the  softening  of  the  hearts  of  the  men  in  that 
terrible  crowd  and  the  strange  turn  of  events  in 
a  situation  that  seemed  utterly  hopeless ;  and  in  the 
largest  possible  way  I  had  hope  not  only  for  my 
own  people,  but  also  for  the  Southern  white  people 
with  whom  we  live. 

I  saw  clearly  that  that  which  nearly  cost  me  my 
life  was  the  identical  thing  which  is  the  root  of 
most  of  the  racial  difficulties — it  is  misunderstand- 
ing. It  is  this  misunderstanding  which  up  to  this 
time  has  kept  back  the  wholesome  realization  of  ex- 
isting conditions,  which  is  so  necessary  to  the  hu- 
mane adjustment  of  the  problem,  and  the  breach 
has  widened. 

But  I  am  happy  to  say  that  there  are  now  more 
than  a  dozen  different  agencies  in  Mississippi  work- 
ing toward  a  sane  adjustment,  all  of  which  makes 


116  PINEY  WOODS 

me  feel  that  there  is  a  brighter  day  ahead.  More- 
over, I  am  confirmed  in  this  feeling  by  a  great  sheaf 
of  letters  from  white  men  in  Mississippi — men 
•who  have  been  in  contact  with  the  Negro  ever  since 
they  were  born,  who  have  grown  to  manhood  on  the 
plantations  and  farms,  who  have  supervised  the 
Negro's  work  and  weighed  his1  cotton  and  sold  it 
for  him.  The  letters  are  from  every  part  of  the 
state,  but  most  of  them  are  from  the  rural  districts 
where  the  masses  of  the  Negroes  live.  Some  are 
from  bankers,  and  if  there  is  any  man  in  the  world 
who  is  capable  of  judging  his  fellow-men  it  is  the 
banker,  and  all  the  more  able  is  he  when  he  grows 
up  among  the  people  he  is  judging.  The  kindly 
sentiments  of  these  men  tell  us  that  after  all  we 
have  more  friends  among  the  Southern  white  peo- 
ple than  we  dreamed  of,  and  the  number  is  grow- 
ing rapidly.  And  that  is  why  we  are  willing  to 
stay  here  in  spite  of  everything  and  sing  in  our 
hearts: 

"  Let  me  but  do  my  work  from  day  to  day, 
In  field  or  forest,  at  the  desk  or  loom, 
In  roaring  marketplace  or  tranquil  room; 
Let  me  but  find  it  in  my  heart  to  say, 
When  vagrant  wishes  beckon  me  astray, 
'This  is  my  work — my  blessing,  not  my  doom; 
Of  all  who  live,  I  am  the  one  by  whom 
This  work  can  best  be  done,  in  the  right  way.' 
Then  shall  I  see  it  not  too  great  or  small 
To  suit  my  spirit  and  to  prove  my  powers; 
Then  shall  I  cheerful  greet  the  laboring  hours, 
And  cheerful  turn,  when  the  long  shadows  fall 
At  eventide,  to  play  and  love  and  rest, 
Because  I  know  for  me  my  work  is  best." 


VI 

WIDENING  INFLUENCES 

IN  the  course  of  the  struggle  to  establish  our 
school  in  the  Piney  Woods  two  matters  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  Negro  were  being 
recorded  in  the  history  of  the  state.  In  1909  oc- 
curred the  death  of  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  one  of 
the  most  saintly  and  broad-minded  men  the  com- 
monwealth ever  produced,  one  of  those  whose 
eloquence  has  thrilled  thousands  of  people  through- 
out the  world,  but  whose  sense  of  honor  and  love 
of  justice  were  of  peculiar  interest  to  the  Negro, 
for  whom  he  was  ever  ready  to  take  up  his  pen  or 
raise  his  voice.  It  meant  a  great  deal  to  a  strug- 
gling race  to  have  a  man  of  such  eminence  not 
afraid  to  stand  forth  and  say :  "  I  have  studied, 
with  no  small  degree  of  pains,  the  records  of  the 
graduates  of  most  of  the  leading  colored  institu- 
tions of  learning  in  this  country,  and  I  am  gratified 
with  the  result.  I  have  been  unable  to  find  a 
single  graduate  from  any  representative  Christian 

institution  that  has  been  convicted  of  any  infa- 

117 


118  PINEY  WOODS 

mous  crime.  Education  elevates  all  people,  and  I 
deny  with  all  tlie  emphasis  of  my  being  the  charge 
that  education  does  not  elevate  and  make  better  the 
black  man." 

The  other  matter  was  the  heated  senatorial  cam- 
paign of  ex-Governor  James  K.  Vardaman.  Al- 
ready while  governor  of  the  state  this  official  had 
abolished  the  only  Negro  normal  school  for  the 
training  of  public  school  teachers;  and  while  the 
Jackson  Daily  News,  the  organ  of  the  more  con- 
servative white  people,  waged  an  unyielding  fight 
against  him,  he  went  to  the  United  States  Senate 
by  a  large  majority.  This  critical  era  naturally 
affected  Piney  Woods  as  it  did  all  other  Negro 
schools,  but  as  the  darkest  hour  always  seems  to  be 
just  before  the  dawn,  it  is  pleasant  to  record  that 
ever  since  then  we  have  had  governors  who  have 
not  used  the  Negro  as  campaign  thunder  and  that 
conditions  have  seemed  to  grow  better. 

The  total  population  of  Mississippi  is  1,797,114. 
Of  this  number  1,009,487,  or  56.2  per  cent,  are 
Negroes;  95,357  of  this  number  are  classed  as 
urban  while  914,130,  or  90  per  cent,  live  in  the 
rural  districts.  The  percentage  of  illiteracy  among 
Negroes  is  35.6  per  cent,  which  is  fairly  good,  if 
we  remember  that  nearly  100  per  cent  were  illit- 
erate fifty  years  ago  and  that  the  school  facilities 


WIDENING  INFLUENCES  119 

which  obtain  to-day  are  altogether  inadequate.  As 
regards  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  state, 
there  axe  many  people,  especially  in  the  North,  \vho 
think  of  all  the  land  as  swampy.  Only  the  north- 
western section,  known  as  the  Delta  region,  is  so, 
and  because  of  the  inundation  of  the  Mississippi 
and  its  tributaries,  this  contains  the  richest  soil  in 
the  United  States.  The  northeast  quarter  of  the 
state  is  the  prairie  section,  a  great  grain-growing 
region  that  fed  the  Confederacy  in  the  Civil  War. 
The  southern  half  of  the  state  is  known  as  the  hill 
section,  and  it  is  here  in  Rankin  county,  near  the 
line  of  Simpson,  that  the  Piney  Woods  Country 
Life  School  is  located.  One  of  the  inspiring  move- 
ments in  South  Mississippi  has  been  the  building 
of  the  Gulf  and  Ship  Island  Railway  and  the  de- 
velopment of  Gulfport  as  a  winter  resort  and 
a  deep-water  harbor  by  the  late  Captain  J.  T. 
Jones,  which  enterprise  is  now  being  carried  for- 
ward by  his  daughter  and  son-in-law,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
W.  T.  Stewart.  The  success  of  this  tremendous 
undertaking  inspires  other  enterprises  to  push  for- 
ward and  the  future  of  South  Mississippi  grows 
brighter  day  by  day. 

Our  county  of  Rankin  contains  791  square  miles 
and  Simpson  575.  The  Piney  Woods  School,  being 
located  near  the  line,  serves  both  counties  as  the 


120  PINEY  WOODS 

only  graded  industrial  high  school.  In  a  total 
population  of  23,944,  Rankin  county  has  14,294 
Negroes;  Simpson  has  5,969  Negroes,  and  Scott 
and  Smith,  that  adjoin  Rankin  on  the  east,  contain 
9,795  more.  Thus  we  have  in  our  immediate  vicin- 
ity over  30,000  people,  more  than  50  per  cent  of 
whom  are  illiterate.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
this  is  an  entirely  rural  section  of  the  state,  there 
being  only  two  towns  of  any  size,  Hattiesburg,  and 
Laurel,  called  the  Magic  City  of  the  state.  The 
wideawake  spirit  of  Laurel  is  due  to  the  energy 
and  fine  spirit  of  Mr.  George  S.  Gardiner,  who 
pioneered  in  their  mammoth  enterprises,  and  Mr.  S. 
W.  Gardiner,  his  brother.  This  spirit  and  accom- 
plishment is  being  carried  forward  now  by  the  next 
generation  of  keen  business  men,  Mr.  P.  S.  Gar- 
diner, Mr.  Arthur  Cox,  Mr.  Charles  Green,  Mr. 
Frank  Wisner,  and  Mr.  W.  B.  Rogers.  The  dense 
ignorance  and  superstition  of  the  rural  Negroes  is 
due  to  the  lack  of  effective  educational  facilities. 
For  over  a  million  Negroes  the  state  furnishes  but 
one  Agricultural  College,  and  within  the  last  year 
this  received  an  appropriation  of  only  $63,000. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that  all  of  the 
workers  at  Piney  Woods  find  abundant  opportunity 
for  service  beyond  the  immediate  bounds  of  the 


Bteto^ 

T 


r      ,    '  y 

: 


Young  America 
Class  Making  Baskets  of  Pine  Straw 


WIDENING  INFLUENCES  121 

school.  Writing  letters,  reading  letters  from  sons 
who  have  "  gone  off  on  the  railroad,"  explaining 
passages  of  Scripture,  settling  family  quarrels,  act- 
ing as  judge  in  neighborhood  quarrels,  occasionally 
copying  some  document  for  the  white  people  who 
live  near  us — these,  with  the  raising  of  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  a  year  to  carry  on  the  work,  are 
some  of  my  own  duties.  Once  far  off  in  the  woods 
I  happened  upon  a  funeral.  ISTo  preacher  heing 
near,  the  people  were  preparing  to  lower  the  corpse 
in  a  rough  pine  box  into  the  grave  without  any 
service  when  I  got  off  my  horse  and  read  some  pas- 
sages of  Scripture.  At  another  time  a  young  white 
man  attempted  to  save  the  life  of  an  aged  colored 
woman  who  was  trying  to  cross  some  railroad 
tracks  before  an  incoming  passenger  train.  After 
reading  of  the  deed  and  making  careful  inquiry 
at  Jackson,  where  it  happened,  we  wrote  to  the 
Carnegie  Hero  Fund  Commission  and  are  glad  to 
say  that  the  young  man  received  a  reward. 

During  one  of  our  state  fairs  Piney  Woods  had 
on  exhibit  a  large  display  of  live  stock.  One  morn- 
ing I  had  donned  my  overalls  and  was  down  help- 
ing the  boys  with  the  feeding  when  I  received  a 
summons  from  Hon.  Calvin  Wells  to  come  to  the 
court  house  as  a  witness  before  the  Farm  Loan 
Board,  which  was  traveling  about  looking  up  loca- 


122  PINEY  WOODS 

tions  for  the  Farm  Loan  Banks.  I  tried  my  best 
to  impress  the  members  of  the  board  with  the  ad- 
visability of  locating  a  bank  in  Mississippi;  but 
for  the  rest  of  the  story  it  might  be  best  for  me  to 
refer  to  Capt.  Frederick  Sullens,  editor  of  the 
Jackson  Daily  News,  who  wrote  in  his  paper  as 
follows :  "  One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of 
the  sitting  of  the  Farm  Loan  Bank  Board  in  this 
city  was  the  testimony  of  several  prominent  Negro 
leaders,  who  told  of  conditions  existing  among 
members  of  their  race  and  the  efforts  being  made 
by  the  Negro  for  agricultural  advancement.  These 
Negro  leaders  made  decidedly  favorable  impres- 
sions among  members  of  the  board.  They  obtained 
a  glimpse  of  the  Negro  Problem  from  a  new  angle, 
and  when  they  left  Jackson  many  of  their  former 
impressions  concerning  relations  between  the  whites 
and  blacks  in  the  South  had  been  very  much  re- 
vised. A  rather  amusing  incident  was  the  testi- 
mony of  Laurence  C.  Jones,  principal  of  the  Piney 
Woods  Country  Life  School,  and  the  impression  it 
made  on  Herbert  Quick,  a  member  of  the  board. 
Quick  is  one  of  the  foremost  scholars  and  writers 
in  America.  He  resigned  a  position  at  $20,000  as 
one  of  the  editors  of  the  Saturday  Evening  Post 
to  accept  a  place  on  the  Farm  Loan  Bank  Board, 
which  shows  tolerably  well  what  sort  of  a  person 


WIDENING  INFLUENCES  123 

he  is.  When  Laurence  Jones  appeared  before  the 
board  he  commenced  quoting  Socrates,  the  first 
crack  out  of  the  box,  so  to  speak.  Quick  looked  at 
him  a  bit  startled.  He  was  not  looking  for  Soc- 
rates from  such  a  source.  Jones  was  telling  about 
the  idle  Negroes  in  Mississippi,  and  quoting  the 
ancient  philosopher  he  remarked,  '  Not  only  is  he 
idle  who  does  nothing,  but  he  is  also  idle  who  might 
be  better  employed.'  Mr.  Quick  stared  at  the  wit- 
ness like  an  entomologist  who  has  discovered  some 
rare  bug,  but  the  testimony  that  came  from  Jones 
a  few  minutes  later  quickly  convinced  him  that  the 
Negro  was  not  a  '  bug '  but  a  level-headed,  pro- 
gressive, and  wide-awake  member  of  his  race,  who 
is  doing  a  real  and  substantial  work  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  Negroes  in  Mississippi." 

In  1916,  through  the  kindness  of  a  friend  of 
Piney  Woods,  I  was  given  a  few  weeks'  vacation, 
the  first  since  the  founding  of  the  school.  Another 
friend,  our  own  Dr.  D.  J.  Harris,  gave  Mrs.  Jones 
a  trip  to  Hot  Springs  to  help  her  recover  from  a 
recent  siege  of  illness.  I  also  spent  my  time  at 
Hot  'Springs,  but  was  called  back  to  the  school  be- 
fore I  had  been  away  two  weeks.  During  that 
time,  however,  I  had  delivered  several  addresses, 
one  being  at  a  mass  meeting  at  the  Langston  High 
School.  The  Hot  Springs  school  board  was  present 


124  PINEY  WOODS 

and  the  chairman  of  the  board,  Hon.  Hamp  Wil- 
liams, a  prominent  business  man  and  a  former 
member  of  the  state  legislature,  kindly  wrote  me 
a  letter  of  appreciation  a  few  months  afterwards. 

To  us  in  the  Pinej  Woods  the  World  War 
brought  new  responsibilities  and  obligations  just  as 
it  did  to  everyone  else.  At  the  very  beginning 
there  loomed  before  me  the  Officers'  Training  Camp 
at  Des  Moines,  to  which  many  of  my  friends  were 
going.  This  meant  getting  into  the  game  early  and 
greater  honor;  on  the  other  hand  there  was  the 
family — my  wife,  mother,  two  little  boys — and 
then  there  was  the  school.  Meanwhile  I  was  under 
a  Chautauqua  contract  to  visit  some  eighty  odd 
towns,  and  I  was  also  under  contract  with  the  State 
Department  of  Education  for  my  second  term  as 
director  of  a  summer  normal  school  for  some  three 
hundred  Negro  teachers.  I  turned  to  my  wife  and 
dearest  friends  for  advice,  and  their  conviction  was 
that  I  should  follow  out  the  duties  nearest  me. 
When  I  came  to  the  county  seat  in  the  second  regis- 
tration, moreover,  and  fulfilled  the  requirements  of 
the  Government,  my  name  was  officially  placed  in 
Class  4A.  It  was  galling  to  me  to  think  that  I 
was  in  Class  4,  when  I  had  determined  that  in 
everything  I  should  be  in  Class  1;  but  I  resolved 
that  if  I  could  not  be  in  Class  1  on  the  firing  line 


WIDENING  INFLUENCES  125 

in  France  I  would  be  in  Class  1  on  the  firing  line 
in  America,  and  so  I  plunged  into  war  work,  and 
in  every  address  I  delivered  that  summer  I  put 
every  ounce  of  energy  and  enthusiasm.  I  was 
State  and  County  speaker  for  the  Liberty  Loan 
Campaign,  being  engaged  in  five  drives ;  was  chair- 
man of  the  Colored  Red  Cross  workers  in  two  coun- 
ties, wherein  I  conducted  two  drives;  and  was 
speaker  in  the  Thrift  Stamp  Campaigns ;  but  it  was 
in  the  First  United  War  Work  Drive  that  I  per- 
haps found  my  greatest  usefulness.  In  this  I  was 
the  only  member  of  my  race  to  hold  any  kind  of 
executive  office.  Of  our  boys  and  the  men  who 
were  teachers  in  Piney  Woods  School  more  than 
half  a  hundred  answered  the  roll-call,  and  some 
made  the  supreme  sacrifice  for  their  country.  The 
homes  they  came  from  were  often  the  most  humble 
log  cabins  far  away  from  the  main  traveled  roads, 
and  in  them  the  only  books  visible  were  the  Bible 
and  perhaps  a  Sears  Roebuck  or  Montgomery  Ward 
catalogue. 

Among  the  people  who  live  in  these  homes  even 
yet  there  is  superstition  as  well  as  ignorance,  and 
the  "  conjure  man  "  and  the  "  hoodoo  woman  "  are 
still  to  be  reckoned  with.  One  day  about  noon  a 
typical  "  Uncle  Tom  "  came  up  just  as  I  was  com- 
ing out  of  my  garden.  Gray  dust  covered  hi*  shoes 


126  PINEY  WOODS 

and  clothing,  and  his  eyes  moved  about  with  a 
hunted  expression.  "  Fesser,  I'se  in  trouble,"  were 
his  first  words.  I  grasped  his  hand  and  suggested 
that  we  sit  down  under  the  old  cedar  tree.  "  Why, 
you  knows  me,"  he  continued,  "  sholy  you  do,  Fes- 
ser; I's  sit  an'  listened  to  you  speak  many  a  time 
at  Enos  Grove  Church."  "  Where  do  you  live  ?  " 
I  asked.  "  Up  here  'twixt  Florence  an'  Plain, 
'bout  fifteen  miles  from  here."  I  knew  then  that 
something  surely  troubled  him.  "  Fesser,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  my  wife's  runned  away ;  dat's  my  trouble 
an'  I'se  come  to  you  'cause  I  knows  you  can  help 
me.  Yistidday  mornin'  I  had  to  go  to  Jackson, 
an'  Hattie,  dat's  my  wife,  said,  '  I  spec'  I's  goin' 
up  to  Spring  Hill  to  de  Missionary  dis  afternoon.' 
Well,  when  I  got  back  dat  evenin'  'bout  first  dark 
an'  walked  in  an'  looked  'round,  knowin'  she  orter 
been  dere,  I  wondered.  I  made  a  little  fire  in  de 
fireplace  an'  set  down  an'  rested  my  head  on  my 
hands,  tryin'  to  think.  I  guess  I  waited  'bout  an 
hour,  yet  she  hadn't  come;  then  it  begin  to  bother 
me  awful  bad.  I  pushed  up  de  fire  an'  set  till 
late  supper;  yit  she  hadn't  come.  I  neber  seed 
her  act  dat  way  before.  I  jest  set  dere,  didn't 
know  what  ter  do.  I  went  out  to  de  front  gate 
an'  stood  with  my  hands  on  it  'mos'  an  hour.  Den 
I  went  back  an'  sot  by  de  fire,  an'  I  laid  down 


WIDENING  INFLUENCES  127 

'cross  de  bed,  but  I  couldn't  sleep  an'  I  ain't  slept 
none  since;  an'  my  heart  just  kept  beatin'  and 
jumpin'.  Fesser,  dat  'oman  never  jes'  went  off; 
she's  been  runned  off  by  some  dev'lish  conjure  busi- 
ness. I's  been  livin'  wid  her  nigh  thirty  years  an' 
if  you  ain't  never  had  nary  one  to  do  dat  way  you 
doesn't  know.  Look  like  my  heart  nigh  bust  out, 
jes'  jumpin'  all  de  time.  You  know  she  didn't 
jest  go  off,  case  she  lef  'bout  twenty-five  jars  of 
fruit,  and  her  garden  done  planted,  de  English 
peas  up  dis  high,  an'  she  lef  a  fine  little  pig,  an' 
thirty-nine  young  chickens  and  twenty-five  grown 
hens  in  de  yard;  oh,  yes,  an'  anoder  thing,  a  big 
trunk  in  de  corner  'bout  dat  high  an'  heavy.  I 
don'  know  what  she  got  in  it;  I  could  hardly  raise 
up  de  corner;  she  got  de  key.  What  you  s'pose 
she  done  dat  for?  'Sides  dis,  I  got  a  whole  lot 
of  ground  bedded  for  corn,  an'  now  it's  nobody  to 
plant  it.  She's  a  good  'oman;  it  ain't  none  o'  her 
doin's  at  all.  It's  dis  way;  a  old  widow  'oman 
lived  on  de  place  where  we  is,  an'  she  moved  away 
an'  we  'greed  to  work  de  place  dis  year,  an'  den 
she'd  'cided  to  come  back,  an'  case  de  man  what 
owns  de  place  refused  to  knock  out  our  'greement 
she's  mad  an'  now  she's  gone  an'  put  a  spell  on 
Hattie.  Poor  Hattie!  she  jes'  don't  know  whar 
she  is  or  what  she's  doin'.  Fesser,  plenty  o'  people 


128  PINEY  WOODS 

don'  belieb  it,  but  dere's  gophers  an'  conjurers  in 
New  O'leans  ain't  neber  been  here  an'  could  tell 
you  all  you  got  here,  an'  dey  could  tear  all  your 
mind  up  in  less  'an  a  week.  De  low-down  rascals, 
dey  ought  to  be  hung.  Some  o'  dem  gits  it  from 
de  high  ones,  way  back  in  de  far  parts  o'  Vir- 
ginny;  it's  called  a  jack;  an'  de  debils  can  go  to 
your  house  while  you  an'  you'  wife  is  sleepin'  an' 
sprinkle  some  powder  on  de  door  step,  er  plant 
something  dere,  an'  de  nex'  mornin'  you  steps  over 
it  an'  dey's  jest  as  good  as  got  you  as  a  dollar — 
*  *  *  No,  sir,  I  ain't  hungry  a  bit;  couldn't 
eat  if  I  had  to.  I  jes'  got  to  keep  walkin'.  But 
you  can  help  me,  Fesser,  you's  got  de  sense;  you 
can  work  it  so  dat  she'll  come  back  and  never 
leave." 

He  was  very  tired,  and  finally  at  my  repeated 
urging  he  sat  down  to  rest,  almost  immediately 
falling  asleep.  The  late  afternoon  shadows  were 
falling  across  the  road  when  he  awoke  refreshed 
and  in  almost  jubilant  mood.  "  I  knowed  it,"  he 
cried,  looking  at  me  reverently,  "  I  knowed  you 
could  make  your  han'  work  if  you  would.  I  neber 
will  git  through  thankin'  you,  Fesser.  I's  goin' 
home  an'  I  knows  I'll  fin'  Hattie  dere." 

The  next  Christmas  he  suddenly  appeared  with 
a  choice  offering  from  his  hog-killing.  "  You  sho 


WIDENING  INFLUENCES  129 

deserve  dis  present,"  he  said,  "fer  when  I  got  home 
Hattie  was  dar,  big  as  life,  an'  mad  as  a  wet  hen 
case  I  been  out  to  hunt  fer  her.  !She  call  me  a  big 
fool  an'  ask'  me  if  I  was  goin'  to  hunt  fer  her 
why  didn't  I  come  to  de  Missionary  whar  she  tol' 
me  she  was  goin'  'stead  o'  runnin'  askin'  'bout  her 
at  ebery  do'  lak  she  was  some  critter  strayed  off  an' 
lost.  Don'  you  tell  her  nothin'  'bout  my  gittin' 
you  ter  use  yo'  han',  Fesser,  case  she'd  be  madder 
'n  ever.  Women  is  mighty  funny  folks,  some- 
times." 


vn 

TEN  YEARS  AFTER 

OF  the  larger  buildings  at  Piney  Woods  I 
have  told  of  Braxton  Hall,  given  by  the 
white  citizens  of  Braxton  for  a  girls' 
dormitory,  and  Taylor  Hall,  which  is  used  as  a 
school  building,  and  which  also  accommodates  a 
few  girls.  These  buildings  served  well  for  some 
years,  but  as  they  came  in  a  day  when  we  could 
build  only  temporary  structures  with  cheap  pine 
lumber,  we  kept  living  on  in  the  hope  that  they 
would  be  replaced  by  more  substantial  and  endur- 
ing buildings.  And  just  as  most  of  the  good  things 
which  have  come  to  Piney  Woods  have  been  unex- 
pected, so  we  received  a  happy  surprise  one  day 
when  a  young  man  up  in  Iowa  said,  "  I  will  give 
you  $500  in  memory  of  Aunt  Lunky,  a  faithful  old 
mammy  who  served  our  family  for  many  years." 
It  was  a  beautiful  thought  and  a  splendid  gift. 
Very  soon  our  boys  and  even  our  girls  were  helping 
to  dig  the  foundation  for  a  new  girls'  dormitory, 
and  with  the  $500  we  purchased  enough  cement  to 

ISO 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  131 

put  down  a  solid  foundation.  Then  came  the  war 
with  curtailment  in  every  department  of  our  work. 
One  day,  however,  while  looking  for  Piney  Woods 
friends  in  Des  Moines  with  dear  Uncle  Asa  Tur- 
ner, someone  told  us  that  Mr.  George  W.  Dulany, 
the  young  man  who  had  given  us  the  $500,  was 
captain  of  Battery  F,  encamped  at  the  Coliseum. 
A  successful  search  through  the  throng  of  khaki- 
clad  soldiers  finally  brought  us  to  Captain  Dulany, 
and  as  he  shook  hands  with  Captain  Turner, — the 
one  in  the  full  bloom  of  strong  forward-looking 
young  manhood,  the  other  with  his  wise  head  of 
gray  telling  of  the  days  that  had  come  and  gone — 
I  thought  of  what  a  beautiful  thing  life  can  be,  and 
of  what  a  great  thing  it  is  to  be  an  American 
and  to  aim  to  leave  the  world  better  than  one 
found  it. 

The  next  time  we  heard  of  Battery  F  it  was  in 
a  final  training  camp  in  New  Mexico,  and  our 
friend  was  now  Major  Dulany.  After  the  war 
other  checks  came  from  him,  and  finally  one  for 
$3,000,  the  largest  we  ever  received,  to  finish  the 
building,  which  we  dedicated  at  commencement, 
1921,  as  Dulany  Hall.  It  was  our  first  permanent 
building,  and  within  it  hangs  a  picture  of  Aunt 
Lunky,  whose  serene  face  has  the  beauty  of  truth 
and  service. 


132  PINEY  WOODS 

And  now  as  I  write  this  chapter  I  can  see  the 
boys  of  the  school  mixing  and  pouring  cement,  and 
I  can  hear  them  at  work  as  the  walls  go  upward 
for  our  new  school  building,  Goodwill  Hall,  so- 
called  because  of  the  friends  who  are  giving  toward 
its  construction.  And  there  is  yet  to  be  built  a 
boys'  dormitory  to  take  the  place  of  one  lost  by 
fire  in  1921,  also  a  domestic  science  building,  a 
small  hospital,  a  chapel,  a  boys'  industrial  building, 
a  girls'  industrial  building,  a  dairy  barn,  a  power 
house,  a  laundry,  and  cottages  for  the  married 
teachers.  As  all  other  things  have  come,  some  day 
in  God's  own  time  these  things  also  will  come. 

In  the  school  everything  moves  by  clock  and  bell. 
All  rise  at  5  and  breakfast  at  6.  By  7  everybody 
must  either  be  at  work  or  in  school.  At  4  in  the 
afternoon  all  classroom  work  is  over,  and  all  lights 
go  out  at  9.45.  Within  less  than  ten  years,  on  hills 
that  were  once  the  abode  of  stray  sheep  and  rab- 
bits and  lizards,  there  has  sprung  up  a  bee-hive 
of  three  hundred  students,  and  where  there  was 
once  but  an  old  log  near  a  cedar  tree  we  have  now 
begun  to  see  buildings  of  cement  and  stone.  In- 
stead of  one  cow  there  are  now  forty  head  of  cat- 
tle, 1,500  acres  of  land  instead  of  forty,  and  where 
there  was  once  but  one  teacher  there  are  now  eigh- 
teen faithful  workers.  I  think  it  was  Dr.  'Charles 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  133 

E.  Barker,  formerly  physical  adviser  to  President 
Taft,  who  exclaimed  as  he  stood  in  the  midst  of 
the  Piney  Woods,  "  What  hath  God  wrought !  " 

In  1921-22  we  enrolled  in  our  boarding  depart- 
ment over  two  hundred  boys  and  girls.  These  came 
from  thirty-eight  counties  in  Mississippi,  and  from 
Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Iowa.  To  as  many  more 
who  applied  for  admission  we  could  only  sadly 
reply  that  we  did  not  have  room  for  even  one  more. 
The  boarding  students  are  in  two  groups.  There 
are  those  who  come  to  us  with  all  their  worldly 
possessions  in  a  basket  or  tied  up  in  a  red  bandana 
handkerchief,  and  whose  greatest  asset  is  a  desire 
for  an  education  and  a  willingness  to  work  for  it. 
Such  are  known  as  "  work  students ;  "  they  labor 
through  the  day  and  attend  school  two  hours  at 
night.  Once  on  my  travels  I  passed  by  a  large 
briar  patch.  I  stopped  and  peered  through  the 
thicket,  but  all  I  could  discern  was  two  large  eyes 
fastened  on  me.  In  response  to  my  inquiry  the 
owner  of  the  eyes  said,  "  My  name's  Willie  Buck ; 
I's  fo'teen.  No  sah,  I  ain't  done  no  kind  of  work 
but  plow  and  hoe."  In  1922,  however,  Willie 
Buck  was  graduated,  and  for  his  commencement 
part  he  explained  some  of  the  simple  and  practical 
uses  of  electricity,  and  he  spoke  in  good,  clear  Eng- 
lish. He  also  knows  something  of  gasoline  engine 


134  PINEY  WOODS 

wizardry  and  has  done  much  of  the  school's  plumb- 
ing. "  Pa  Collins,"  as  he  was  known  by  the  boys, 
came  and  brought  his  entire  family — wife,  seven 
children,  father,  and  mother;  all  attend  school  on 
the  credit  gained  from  their  work.  Another  group 
of  students  who  are  able  to  pay  eight  or  ten  dollars 
a  month  in  cash,  work  half  a  day  and  go  to  school 
the  other  half  of  the  day.  All  students  must  be  at 
least  twelve  years  of  age  to  be  admitted  to  the 
boarding  department,  but  we  have  even  had  one 
who  was  not  sure  of  his  age,  but  who  was  more 
than  forty  and  in  the  fourth  grade.  Meanwhile 
community  children  from  the  age  of  six  up  to  the 
number  of  more  than  a  hundred  walk  daily  an 
average  of  six  or  eight  miles.  One  little  girl  whose 
mother  is  dead  cooks  and  sews  for  five  younger 
children,  walks  a  distance  of  seven  miles,  stays 
through  the  week  with  relatives  about  three  miles 
from  the  campus,  and  walks  home  on  Friday  even- 
ing to  put  her  house  in  order  for  the  next  week. 

The  following  correspondence  will  reveal  some- 
thing of  the  class  of  students  who  come  to  us. 
Here  is  a  letter  from  one  boy  who  went  to  France 
when  the  call  came :  "  Jackson,  Miss.,  E.  F.  D.  4, 
good  morning  professor,  how  is  all,  I  is  well  and 
all  of  the  family  is  well,  your  most  welcome  letter 
was  received  a  few  days  ago  glad  was  I  to  hear 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  135 

of  the  ofer  you  made,  now  father  were  expecting 
to  help  me  by  selling  a  cow  but  the  cow  eat  so 
many  acorns  She  died  So  father  say  he  can  let  you 
have  some  molasses  if  they  will  be  al  rite  for  pay. 
if  they  cont  do  then  i  will  hafter  come  and  be  a 
work  boy  as  we  aint  got  no  money  and  i  sure 
does  want  to  edicate.  Rite  me  al  about  it  cause 
I  will  work  at  anything,  and  the  boy  that  are  com- 
ing with  me  are  going  to  let  you  have  a  young 
heifer  for  his  scholing.  yours  truly,  Doc  Bryant." 
A  girl  by  the  name  of  Georgie  Lee  Myers  heard 
of  the  school,  and,  being  without  parents  and  with- 
out money,  told  her  friends  of  her  longing  for  an 
education.  For  railroad  fare  and  suitable  cloth- 
ing they  helped  her  as  follows  (and  the  outline  is 
given  just  as  she  told  it  to  us)  :  Aunt  Hester 
Robinson  gave  a  pound  of  butter  and  a  dime, 
Grandma  Willis  a  chicken,  Aunt  Lucy  McCornell 
"  four  bits  "  (fifty  cents),  Sarah  Pernell  a  chicken, 
Effie  McCoy  a  cake  and  five  cents,  Sam  McCoy 
five  cents,  James  Buckner  "  two  bits,"  Mrs.  Church 
seven  cents,  Meal  Kyle  "  two  bits,"  Mollice  Pernell 
a  few  things,  Chlora  Pernell  a  dime,  Bessie  Har- 
vey one  of  her  dresses,  Washington  Lincoln  John- 
son two  pecks  of  meal,  Mandy  Willis  a  dozen  eggs. 
Concerning  this  girl  her  aunt  wrote  the  next  fall: 
"  I  am  glad  to  write  to  you  and  tell  you  about  the 


136  PINEY  WOODS 

improvement  you  has  made  in  Georgia,  she  is  bet- 
ter in  the  washtub  and  in  the  fields  and  in  the 
kitchen  and  in  the  house.  She  is  better  every- 
where I  puts  her  then  she  was.  She  has  work  so 
faithful  sence  she  came  home  I  wants  to  send  her 
back  and  I  wants  to  pay  enough  for  hir  to  go  to 
school  in  the  day  now  if  she  work  in  the  morning 
and  in  the  evening  after  school  is  out  then  what 
will  you  charge  me  for  hir  going  to  school.  Well 
she  says  she  wants  to  come  if  she  hafter  do  like 
she  did  last  year  but  I  ames  to  do  all  I  can  for 
her  and  I  wants  you  and  your  dear  wife  to  do  the 
same  well  you  write  as  soon  as  you  get  this  and 
let  me  here  so  I  will  no  what  to  do.  oh  yes  there 
is  some  boys  here  who  wants  to  work  for  their 
schoolen  by  so  doing  git  an  education  by  worken 
a  half  day  and  going  to  school  the  other  half  well 
I  am  going  to  send  you  Georgia's  nephew  and  twoo 
more  I  gess  they  are  coming.  But  you  look  for 
Georgia  and  hir  brother  first  of  next  month  just 
as  soon  as  you  reply  to  this  letter."  Georgia  did 
indeed  return  and  we  shall  hear  more  of  her  as 
one  of  our  graduates. 

The  academic  work  of  the  school  is  intended  to 
give  a  good  common  education  and  to  apply  arith- 
metic, geography,  and  theoretical  agriculture  in  a 
practical  way.  It  is  our  constant  endeavor  to 


^     u 


*c3      3 

ffi   O 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  137 

teach  these  boys  and  girls  in  the  terms  of  their 
everyday  life,  and  classes  are  taken  out  of  doors 
to  the  objects  measured  and  studied.  We  do  away 
with  any  educational  frill  and  harness  the  theoret- 
ical to  the  practical  life  of  Mississippi.  Arith- 
metic is  applied  in  determining  the  cost  of  making 
cotton  as  against  the  cost  of  growing  corn,  in  esti- 
mating the  value  of  a  cow  by  testing  the  milk  she 
gives,  and  in  determining  the  relative  value  of  a 
Piney  Woods  "  rooter  "  and  a  Berkshire.  Chem- 
istry is  used  to  show  that  it  has  something  to  do 
with  curing  the  hams  of  this  Berkshire,  with 
home  sanitation,  with  the  preserving  of  fruits  and 
vegetables,  with  the  making  of  molasses,  and  with 
the  testing  of  seed  corn.  It  is  all  a  training  de- 
signed to  meet  conditions  as  they  are  and  not  an 
effort  to  force  upon  the  pupil  such  education  as 
he  would  need  were  he  to  become  President  of  the 
United  States.  Some  of  the  students  remain  to 
finish  only  the  eighth  grade,  and  then  they  must 
end  their  school  days  and  go  out  into  the  world; 
but  they  were  perhaps  already  eighteen  or  nineteen 
when  they  came  to  Piney  Woods  and  entered  the 
third  or  fourth  grade.  Some  climb  upward  in  spite 
of  the  handicap,  and  for  those  who  have  been  most 
fortunate  in  getting  an  early  start  in  life  our  prac- 
tical teachers'  training  course  in  the  Normal  De- 
partment looks  forward  to  a  larger  life  of  service. 


138  PINEY  WOODS 

As  for  the  industrial  work,  for  the  boys  we 
have  carpentry,  blacksmithing,  broom-making,  shoe 
mending,  printing,  and  farming;  for  the  girls  we 
have  laundering,  cooking,  housekeeping,  sewing, 
gardening,  and  poultry  raising.  Some  of  the  girls 
also  work  at  shoe  mending  and  broom-making,  and 
every  student  works  for  half  of  each  day  in  some 
industrial  department.  Everybody  must  have  at 
least  two  years  in  the  agricultural  department,  and 
every  girl  must  earn  a  certificate  in  the  laundry 
and  training  kitchen  before  taking  up  basketry, 
and  other  branches  of  domestic  science  and  handi- 
craft. Many  students  stay  through  the  summer  in 
order  to  earn  enough  credit  to  take  them  through 
the  winter  term.  In  the  course  of  the  summer  one 
such  girl  in  order  to  pay  for  the  following  winter's 
schooling  cut  brush  and  small  sapling  pines,  planted 
corn,  dug  potatoes,  worked  in  the  garden,  picked 
wild  blackberries  and  put  them  up  for  the  school, 
set  type,  washed  and  ironed,  helped  in  the  kitchen 
at  meal  times,  milked  two  cows  every  morning; 
and  when  she  went  home  for  a  few  days'  vacation 
she  picked  cotton,  stripped  sugar  cane,  showed  her 
mother  the  use  of  wild  blackberries  learned  at 
school,  and  also  made  practical  use  of  her  knowl- 
edge of  sewing.  In  the  industrial  and  agricultural 
department  as  well  as  in  all  other  departments  of 


TEN  YEARS  AFTEK  139 

the  school  there  is  one  ideal  we  ever  hold  before 
the  student  body,  and  that  is  of  the  dignity  of  all 
labor.  It  is  best  expressed  in  a  motto  that  I  once 
saw  in  the  main  hall  of  "  Apple  Trees,"  the  home 
of  our  friend,  Mrs.  C.  E.  Perkins :  "  Don't  forget 
that  you  ennoble  your  work ;  it  never  degrades  you. 
The  only  disgraceful  thing  about  toil  of  any  kind 
is  the  half  doing  of  it." 

While  the  school  is  undenominational  the  spir- 
itual side  of  the  work  is  not  neglected.  Indeed  the 
watchword  of  the  institute  is,  "  Seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you."  The  first  period 
of  each  morning  is  devoted  to  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  Every  Sunday  morning  at  nine  our  wide- 
awake Sunday  School  meets.  When  we  can  get  a 
minister  it  is  followed  by  a  preaching  service; 
otherwise  we  have  an  hour  of  morning  prayer.  At 
one  o'clock  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  O.  A.  as- 
semble, in  the  afternoon  at  three  comes  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  meeting,  and  there  are  evening 
chapel  services  at  seven.  Every  student  and  teacher 
on  the  campus  is  to  be  found  at  these  meetings, 
and  it  is  uplifting  to  see  the  lines  of  gray-clad 
girls  and  stalwart  young  men  marching  to  the  dif- 
ferent services. 

Besides  the  training  in  books,  industries,   and 


140  PINEY  WOODS 

religion,  our  students  also  have  a  chance  to  take 
part  in  the  more  spontaneous  exercises  of  clubs  and 
literary  societies.  The  older  boys  and  girls  of  the 
school  have  two  agricultural  clubs,  the  Henry  Wal- 
lace Club  and  the  D.  J.  Harris  Club.  These  meet 
on  Saturday  nights  with  a  program  and  a  joint  de- 
bate on  agricultural  topics.  The  Asa  Turner  So- 
ciety is  made  up  of  the  members  of  the  highest 
two  classes  who  have  for  their  motto  the  motto  of 
our  Uncle  Asa  Turner,  "  To  be  good,  to  do  good, 
and  to  make  some  money."  Then  there  is  the 
Emily  Howland  Practical  Life  Society,  made  up 
mainly  of  girls  from  the  printing  and  shoe-mending 
departments.  These  clubs  fulfil  a  valuable  purpose 
in  that  they  have  not  only  given  splendid  training 
to  the  boys  and  girls,  but  also  because  they  give 
them  an  opportunity  for  self-expression. 

The  teachers  who  come  to  us  are  generally  se- 
lected with  regard  to  their  ability  to  teach  not  only 
books  but  some  industrial  subject,  so  that  they  are 
found  in  the  shops  or  field  when  not  in  the  school- 
room. Piney  Woods  will  always  be  grateful  for 
the  good  work  done  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Yancy.  Mr. 
Yancy  had  been  taught  carpentry  by  his  father 
and  grandfather,  and  helped  especially  in  the  erec- 
tion of  the  first  buildings.  Mr.  Eeden  was  a  young 
man  in  Iowa  whom  for  two  years  I  urged  to  come 
South.  He  served  in  our  academic  department, 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  Ul 

later  married  one  of  our  teachers,  Miss  Mary  E. 
Martin,  who  also  had  worked  faithfully  for  a  num- 
ber of  years,  and  now  he  and  his  wife  are  in  public 
school  work  in  Sunflower  county,  and,  by  virtue  of 
their  experience  in  Piney  Woods,  where  we  instruct 
teachers  and  pupils  always  to  do  that  which  will 
bring  about  a  better  understanding  between  the 
races,  have  succeeded  in  getting  the  school  authori- 
ties in  their  section  to  do  more  for  public  education 
than  they  ever  did  before.  Mr.  McGilberry,  Mrs. 
W.  C.  Dixon,  and  Rev.  E.  J.  Penney  and  Mrs. 
Penney  are  also  among  those  whom  we  remember 
with  most  gratitude.  Mr.  McGilberry  has  a 
natural  gift  for  mechanical  work  and  the  spirit  of  a 
true  missionary.  Rev.  Mr.  Penney  was  our  faith- 
ful chaplain  for  two  years,  and  his  instruction  in 
the  Bible  will  never  be  forgotten.  To-day  eighteen 
teachers  altogether  are  laboring  faithfully  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  work  and  the  elevation  of  the 
surrounding  country,  and  they  are  working  more 
for  the  good  that  they  can  do  than  for  any  financial 
consideration.  In  connection  with  them  we  re- 
member also  the  interest  of  two  of  our  local  trus- 
tees, Mr.  Amon  Gipson  and  Mr.  Hector  McLaurin. 
These  men  have  been  almost  weekly  visitors  on  the 
campus  and  have  always  been  at  the  service  of  the 
school  night  or  day,  whenever  we  have  called  them. 


142  PINEY  WOODS 

Aa  the  years  have  gone  by  naturally  our  field  of 
service  has  become  more  extended.  All  through 
the  year  the  teachers  do  extension  work  in  person, 
sometimes  in  a  single  home,  again  in  a  neighbor- 
hood meeting  or  in  a  country  church,  sometimes 
simply  in  an  outdoor  meeting  called  for  the  forma- 
tion of  an  improvement  club.  We  found  some  of 
the  people  working  on  "  halves,"  that  is,  they  gave 
half  of  what  they  made  for  their  provisions  during 
the  year;  some  rented  or  leased,  but  in  any  case 
their  debts  at  the  end  of  the  year  covered  all  that 
they  made.  Now  the  spirit  of  buying  land  pos- 
sesses many;  they  desire  to  be  independent  small 
farmers,  consuming  with  economy,  so  that  they 
might  get  ahead.  Many  are  still  living  in  old  log 
cabins  built  before  the  war,  but  for  the  most  part 
the  homes  are  whitewashed  or  painted,  and  some 
have  even  built  new  houses.  In  some  places  glass 
windows  have  appeared  where  there  were  only 
wooden  shutters  before,  and  in  many  other  ways 
signs  of  progress  are  discernible.  Indirectly  or 
directly  our  workers  thus  influence  for  good  more 
than  nine  thousand  people  each  year. 

Each  year  we  hold  at  the  school  a  Farmers'  Con- 
ference, and  in  this  meeting  experiences  are  ex- 
changed. We  always  endeavor  to  have  at  these 
gatherings  a  good  speaker  who  will  inspire  the 
farmers  to  better  living  as  well  as  better  systems 


TEN  YEARS  AFTEE  143 

of  working  their  land.  On  these  occasions  such 
men  as  Captain  Turner  and  Prof.  P.  G.  Hoi  den 
have  met  face  to  face  six  hundred  earnest  peasant 
folk  from  two  states  and  nineteen  different  settle- 
ments. During  the  ten  years  that  these  confer- 
ences have  been  meeting  more  than  six  thousand 
acres  of  land  have  been  purchased  by  colored  farm- 
ers in  the  vicinity  of  the  school,  which  is  more 
than  was  purchased  in  the  previous  twenty  years. 

Although  the  school  is  but  ten  years  old,  the 
records  of  our  ex-students  and  graduates  are  ample 
evidence  of  the  good  of  the  work  and  constitute  a 
perpetual  reward  and  incentive.  It  was  just  four 
years  ago,  in  May,  1918,  that  Piney  Woods  sent 
out  from  the  Normal  Department  its  first  class. 
Ah,  that  first  class,  the  class  of  1918 !  How  they 
worked!  How  they  loved  Piney  Woods!  Of  that 
class  those  who  are  still  connected  with  the  school 
in  one  way  or  another  are  Charles  M.  Shed, 
who  is  in  charge  of  the  printing  office  and  the  as- 
sistant treasurer;  Miss  Eva  L.  Spell,  the  school's 
accountant;  Miss  Ella  Carter,  who  worked  four 
years  in  a  private  family  in  Cedar  Falls,  Iowa,  in 
order  better  to  prepare  herself  to  take  charge  of 
our  academic  and  musical  departments;  and  Miss 
Pauline  Williams,  who  also  attended  the  Iowa  State 
Teachers  College,  has  endured  many  hardships  as 


144  PINEY  WOODS 

financial  agent  of  the  school,  and  is  now  in  charge 
of  the  physical  training  of  the  girls.  Another  of 
our  young  men,  R.  D.  Otis,  we  sent  to  T^hree  Oaks, 
Michigan,  to  learn  practical  methods  of  farming. 
He  succeeded  in  building  up  the  dairy  business 
and  in  graduating  after  four  years  from  the  Three 
Oaks  High  School  with  a  little  over  a  thousand 
dollars  in  cash  and  a  recommendation  from  every 
business  man  and  banker  in  town.  He  is  now  in 
his  second  year  at  the  Iowa  State  Agricultural  Col- 
lege. Of  the  class  of  1919,  two  members  were  ac- 
tively engaged  in  educational  work  with  head- 
quarters at  the  school  for  two  years — Miss  Georgia 
L.  Myers,  who  as  county  industrial  supervisor  for 
Simpson  county  had  under  her  charge  twenty- 
three  schools  and  three  thousand  children,  and  Miss 
Gerthie  Polk,  who  as  county  industrial  supervisor 
for  Rankin  county  had  in  charge  fifty- three  schools 
and  five  thousand  children.  Responding  to  a 
Macedonian  call  from  Georgia  Lee  Myers  one  day, 
I  journeyed  back  from  the  main-traveled  roads  and 
found  her  teaching  in  a  little  country  school  and 
trying  to  carry  out  what  she  had  learned  at  Piney 
Woods.  No  one  had  ever  before  undertaken  such 
work  as  hers  in  the  community  where  she  was,  and 
she  had  to  work  against  opposition  and  indiffer- 
ences as  well  as  general  inconvenience  and  poverty. 


TEN  YEAKS  AFTER  145 

However,  she  had  taken  charge  of  the  little  dilapi- 
dated school,  helped  whitewash  it  inside  and  out- 
side, had  put  in  two  glass  windows,  huilt  a  fence 
around  the  yard,  and  set  out  some  trees.  After  I 
had  spoken  to  the  people  one  of  the  most  progres- 
sive men  of  the  community  came  to  me  and  said: 
"  Fesser,  we  ain't  never  had  no  teacher  in  here  like 
Miss  Georgia,  an'  we  wants  to  keep  her  all  de  time ; 
but  she  says  she  wants  to  go  back  to  youall's  school, 
so  if  we  hab  to  git  another  one  we  wants  one  jest 
like  her."  Somewhat  more  recently,  after  a  year 
of  trouble  and  trials  of  every  kind,  with  help  from 
Mr.  Julius  Rosenwald's  Negro  Educational  Fund, 
Georgia  Lee  Myers  has  succeeded  in  raising  enough 
money  to  put  up  a  modern  rural  school  building 
where  she  and  Miss  Nancy  Young,  of  the  class  of 
1921,  are  now  teaching.  The  splendid  work  of 
Miss  Gerthie  Polk  in  bringing  about  a  change  at 
the  Green  Hill  School  needs  little  comment.  I  only 
wish,  however,  I  could  bring  home  to  my  readers 
what  it  means  to  raise  six  or  seven,  hundred  dollars 
among  a  people  who  really  want  the  better  things 
of  life  but  whose  ignorance  and  superstition  liter- 
ally sow  with  stumbling-blocks  the  path  of  one 
who  essays  to  help  them  better  their  situation.  In 
the  class  of  1920  one  strong  young  man,  DeWitt 
Talmage  Mason,  reversed  the  usual  order  of  things 


146  PINEY  WOODS 

by  going  back  to  the  farm  while  his  father  went  to 
town  to  work.  His  modern  ideals  of  farming  and 
his  general  knowledge  of  carpentry  and  blacksmith- 
ing  have  revolutionized  the  old  farm,  and  he  and 
his  wife,  who  is  also  from  Piney  Woods,  command 
the  respect  and  admiration  of  both  white  and  col- 
ored people. 

Miss  Estella  Otis,  of  the  class  of  1920,  first  took 
up  stenography  under  the  tutelage  of  Mrs.  Brooks. 
After  her  graduation  a  friend  of  the  school  helped 
her  to  complete  the  course  of  her  choice  at  Des 
Moines  College,  and  she  is  now  busy  from  day  to 
day  sending  out  the  Pine  Torch  and  carrying  for- 
ward the  correspondence  of  the  institution.  Thus 
out  of  a  total  of  thirty-eight  graduates,  five  are 
still  connected  with  the  institution  and  the  others 
are  engaged  in  teaching,  farming,  buying  homes, 
attending  higher  institutions  of  learning,  or  follow- 
ing other  useful  pursuits. 


The  other  day  my  wife  and  I  went  out  for  one 
of  our  occasional  tours  of  inspection.  In  the  in- 
dustrial shops  we  found  boys  at  work  blacksmith- 
ing,  one  making  a  pair  of  hinges  for  a  farm  gate, 
one  shoeing  an  unruly  mule,  and  another  filing 
a  wheel.  In  the  carpentry  shop  two  boys  were  at 
work,  one  at  the  turning  lathe,  the  other  repairing 


o 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  147 

a  table.  Across  the  road  several  boys  were  making 
brooms  out  of  straw  that  they  had  helped  to  grow, 
and  others  were  mending  shoes.  Then  we  went  to 
the  piggery,  where  we  smiled  at  the  thoroughbred 
hogs  that  had  taken  the  place  of  the  razor-backs 
we  started  with.  Several  boys  were  spraying  them 
with  creosote  dip,  while  another  boy  was  filling  a 
trough  with  water  piped  down  from  a  hillside 
spring.  To  our  right  geese  and  ducks  were  diving 
and  paddling  in  a  large  pond. 

We  went  over  the  hill  and  saw  the  lambs  at  play 
and  the  wise-looking  goats  browsing  upon  the 
shrubs;  and  then  looked  over  an  experimental 
patch  of  alfalfa  on  the  Harris  farm,  the  first 
grown  in  these  parts.  Then  we  climbed  over  a 
five-foot  woven  wire  fence  that  had  taken  the  place 
of  a  rail  fence,  and,  crossing  a  field  of  oats,  went 
around  by  the  grist  mill,  where  the  boys  were 
grinding  into  grits  and  meal  for  the  school's  com- 
missary the  corn  they  had  raised  the  previous 
summer.  Here  also  was  the  large  cane  mill,  which 
our  friends  gave  us  last  summer,  and  there  was 
the  big  twelve  horsepower  gasoline  engine  sent  us 
by  our  good  friend,  Captain  Turner.  We  thought 
of  the  first  letter  he  had  written :  "  I  like  what 
you  are  doing  in  your  corner  of  the  vineyard;" 
and  we  passed  on  by  some  boys  with  two  double- 


148  PINEY  WOODS 

mule  teams  turning  over  the  earth.  Farther  on 
we  saw  another  team  at  work  and  a  boy  planting 
potatoes  and  another  setting  out  onions. 

At  the  barn  we  found  several  boys  hauling  out 
fertilizer,  another  putting  the  evening  rations  in 
the  troughs  for  the  cows  and  mules,  while  another 
was  currying  Capt.  "  Jersey  Jinks."  We  passed 
the  poultry  plant  and  saw  the  Plymouth  Rocks 
and  journeyed  on  over  the  hill  to  the  laundry 
where  a  dozen  girls  were  at  work  in  order  that  they 
might  "  plant  their  feet  on  higher  ground."  We 
passed  the  domestic  science  room  and  saw  the  cooks 
in  their  neat  white  aprons  and  caps,  and  then  came 
to  the  printing  office  where  we  heard  the  steady 
beating  of  the  gasoline  engine  pulling  our  new 
press,  made  possible  by  such  generous  friends  as 
Mr.  George  A.  Joslyn  and  Mr.  Joseph  R.  Noel. 
A  crippled  young  man  of  the  class  of  1918,  who 
had  come  to  us  a  few  years  before,  was  running 
off  the  Pine  Torch,  while  several  girls  were  at  work 
folding  and  addressing  and  wrapping  the  papers. 
We  passed  on  to  the  girls'  industrial  shop  where 
we  found  some  girls  sewing,  others  making  baskets 
out  of  pine  straw,  some  weaving  rag  carpets,  others 
mending  shoes,  just  as  steadily  as  when  Mrs.  Jones 
left  them.  We  went  on  to  the  school  building  and 
heard  the  hum  of  the  primary  tots,  and  in  the 
library  a  Bible  class  was  in  session. 


TEN  YEAES  AFTER  149 

We  went  into  the  office  and  looked  out  of  the 
window  toward  the  barrel  room  where  we  keep  for 
distribution  to  needy  students  the  boxes  and  bar- 
rels of  clothing  from  the  North,  and  we  thought 
of  the  lives  that  had  been  saved  for  service  by  such 
means  as  these.  We  looked  around  in  the  office 
at  the  table  upon  which  this  typewriter  stands,  that 
is  telling  the  story,  a  gift  from  the  loving  hands  of 
Mrs.  Charles  E.  Perkins,  and  in  the  other  corner 
we  noted  the  desk  from  the  home  of  our  early 
friend,  Mrs.  James  G.  Berryhill,  at  which  the  little 
woman  writes,  often  until  late  in  the  night.  Then 
we  looked  at  the  letter  files  that  contain  the  hun- 
dreds of  cheering  messages  to  "  strive  on "  that 
have  come  to  us  like  good  words  from  another 
world  and  have  brought  the  spray  for  our  human 
orchard. 

I  wish  I  might  tell  you  that  Piney  Woods  is  an 
ideal  school,  that  it  holds  out  to  all  who  would 
enter  the  torch  of  learning  and  opportunity;  but 
we  are  still  in  the  throes  of  those  growing  years 
when  our  boys  are  quartered  in  temporary  bar- 
racks and  often  in  tents,  and  when  our  girls,  to 
make  room  for  one  more,  often  sleep  four  in  a  bed. 
Every  month  in  the  year  we  refuse  boys  and  girls 
who  would  willingly  work  for  the  most  meager 
opportunity  of  education. 


160       -  PINEY  WOODS 

Many  of  our  dreams  are  jet  unfulfilled.  To-day, 
in  a  shabby  half-log  hut,  our  girls  do  the  washing 
for  the  two  hundred  boarding  students  on  boards 
that  are  often  home-made.  No  church  building  has 
as  yet  made  possible  the  gathering  in  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  our  people  about  the  community  for  in- 
telligent divine  worship  on  the  Sabbath  day.  No 
teachers'  or  faculty  living  quarters  have  as  yet 
been  provided,  and  often  our  splendid  workers  have 
been  crowded  together  in  a  fashion  hardly  less 
rough  than  that  of  our  students,  more  than  one  of 
them  sharing  the  tents  and  barracks. 

Other  departments  are  still  limping  toward  the 
perfection  to  which  Piney  Woods  aspires;  yet  we 
can  but  think  of  the  time  ten  years  ago  when  we 
had  only  the  desire  to  serve  and  when  this  was  an 
abandoned  haunt  of  the  owl  and  the  bat,  with  only 
a  shelter  for  wandering  sheep.  And  we  think,  my 
wife  and  I,  of  our  two  little  boys  and  of  the  host 
of  other  boys  and  girls  who  have  come  and  gone, 
and  we  lift  up  our  hearts  in  thanks  to  God  for  the 
kind  friends  who  have  made  possible  all  that  we 
see  about  us  in  Piney  Woods  to-day.  Then  we 
ask  that  we  may  be  spared  to  see  the  future  lives 
of  the  boys  and  girls  as  they  go  out  to  carry  the 
pine  torch  of  Christian  service  to  the  many  still 
in  darkness. 


TEN  YEARS  AFTER  151 

For  "  the  desire  of  our  hearts,"  as  Captain 
Turner  puts  it,  is  not  to  build  up  a  great  school 
as  the  world  considers  greatness,  but  a  simple  little 
country  life  school  that  will  carry  the  gospel  of 
better  farming,  better  living,  better  schools  and 
churches,  to  those  who  live  back  from  the  main- 
traveled  roads.  Just  to  reach  this  corner  of  the 
vineyard,  to  teach  that  Christianity  is  to  be  used 
seven  days  in  the  week,  to  show  those  whom  we 
serve  how  to  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow  where 
only  one  grew  before,  and,  above  all,  to  realize  and 
practice  Noblesse  Oblige  so  that  those  who  receive 
the  blessings  will  pass  them  on  to  the  darker  cor- 
ners of  the  vineyard. 

And  so  our  endeavor  here  in  Piney  Woods  is  that 
the  school  and  those  who  go  out  from  it  will  ever 
make  true  the  message  from  the  sterling-hearted 
grandmother  of  Edward  Bok:  "Make  you  the 
world  a  bit  more  beautiful  and  better  because  you 
have  been  in  it" 


AFTER  WORD 

THIS  account  by  no  means  exhausts  the  story 
of  Piney  Woods:  No  word  is  said  of  the 
splendid  business  men  of  Marshall  town  who 
have  put  their  funds  together  to  make  big  things 
possible  here.  One  thousand  dollars  from  this  source 
went  into  Goodwill  Hall. 

Nor  have  we  paused  to  give  praise  to  the  pastors 
and  many  churches  who  have  opened  their  doors  for 
us  to  tfpeak  and  sing;  nor  to  the  editors  over  the 
states  who  have  printed  bits  of  information  and  let- 
lers  and  notices  without  stint.  And  to  the  Sunday 
Schools-  and  other  societies  who  have  sent  their 
money,  their  boxes  of  clothing,  and  their  books  to 
help  us,  we  owe  far  more  space  than  we  have  dared 
to  take  in  this  little  book. 

To  white  friends  around  us  who  have  braved 
criticism  and  scorn  which  came  because  they  were 
kind  enough  to  associate  with  us  and  with  our  white 
teachers,  even  in  the  face  of  popular  opinion,  we 
are  especially  grateful,  though  we  have  not  said  BO 
in  detail  in  these  pages. 

Other  things  are  left  out:  Serious  occurrences 
have  been  averted:  There  is  the  time  when  some 

rowdy  white  boys  thought  to  come  into  our  rough 

152 


AFTER  WORD  153 

little  chapel  and  "  clean  up "  the  place,  when  Mr. 
Homer  Barwick,  one  of  our  Braxton  white  friends, 
heard  of  it  before  we  did  and  came  up  and  stood 
at  the  door  with  his  shotgun.  There  is  the  threat, 
revealed  long  afterward,  to  dynamite  our  little 
plant,  when  the  counsel  of  Mr.  William  Pattie,  an- 
other of  our  good  white  neighbors,  saved  us. 

Several  honors  would  be  worth  recording :  Piney 
Woods  is  the  youngest  school  in  the  state  following 
the  great  Tuskegee  idea,  yet  the  State  Department 
of  Education  invited  me  to  be  one  of  the  five  in  the 
state  to  work  out  the  accredited  courses'  of  study 
for  standardizing  the  "Negro  schools.  The  others 
were  Professor  Z.  T.  Hubert  of  Jackson  College, 
Professor  R.  S.  Grossley,  Assistant  State  Supervi- 
sor of  Negro  Schools,  President  W.  T.  Holmes  of 
Tougaloo,  and  Professor  L.  J.  Rowan  of  Alcorn. 
At  another  time  I  was  invited  to  speak  for  my 
people  before  the  newly  organized  State  Illiteracy 
Commission. 

Leaders  among  the  colored  race  who  have  visited 
Piney  Woods  are  hardly  mentioned:  We  owe 
them  much,  both  for  the  inspiration  they  have  been 
to  us  and  for  the  financial  help  their  hearty  recom- 
mendation has  brought  to  us.  Among  these  are 
Mr.  Louis  Gregory  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  William 
C.  Graver,  Field  Secretary  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
Hon.  W.  T.  Vernon,  former  Register  of  the  Treas- 


154  AFTER  WORD 

ury,  Professor  Rev.  William  H.  Holloway  of  Talle- 
dega,  Professor  W.  B.  T.  Williams  of  Hampton  and 
Tuskegee  Institutes,  Miss  Josephine  Pinyon  and 
Miss  Catherine  Lealtad  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  L.  K. 
Atwood  and  Prof.  E.  H.  McKissick,  both  of  Missis- 
sippi, and  C.  J.  Halloway,  Director  of  the  Exten- 
sion Department  of  Tuskegee,  who,  upon  recommen- 
dation of  the  State  Department  of  Education,  ap- 
pointed the  writer  to  serve  as  the  first  representa- 
tive of  the  Rosenwald  Fund  for  rural  schools  in  this 
state. 

There  are  other  incidents :  the  graduating  of  my 
own  mother  from  the  broom-making  department  of 
Piney  Woods ;  the  cow  dispute  in  which  more  sym- 
pathy was  aroused  through  the  ills  we  had  to  suffer 
because  our  skin  was1  brown,  than  can  ever  be  re- 
corded. 

Very  little  mention  is  made  in  this  volume  of 
the  vital  part  Mrs.  Jones  has  had  in  the  school.  To 
record  it  would  make  a  book  itself  and  then  it  would 
be  half -told,  for  it  is  too  great  to  be  fashioned  into 
words.  Only  the  lives  of  those  she  has  helped  can 
express  it. 


Printed  in  United  States  of  America 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


APR  4     1953 
MAR  1  6  1359 


SUBJECT  TO  FINE 

EDUCATION 


NOT  RETURNED  TO 

LIBRARY 


Form  L9 — 15m-10,'48(Bl039)444 


Educatioa 
Library 

LC 

2852 
"2J7 


UCLA-ED/PSYCH  Library 

LC  2852  B72J7 


L  005  609  715  7 


i£SSI!£SRSS!EX!±  LIBR*RY  FACILITY 


